Watch a live view of SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral launch pad (members only)

A European Ariane 5 rocket climbed off its launch pad in French Guiana with nearly 3 million pounds of thrust Thursday, carrying two communications satellites to orbit for the Japanese military and British-based Avanti Communications.

The launch of a Boeing-built Mexican communications satellite on a Proton rocket has been postponed after engineers discovered an anomaly on a similar spacecraft.

The mission, dubbed NG-20, marks the first of three planned flights of Cygnus aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff occurred at 12:07 p.m. EST (1707 UTC).