Q&A with Tim Ellis, CEO and co-founder of Relativity Space (members only)

The most powerful configuration of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket blasted off April 14 from Cape Canaveral, hauling multiple U.S. Air Force satellites to a perch high above the equator after piercing a clear evening sky over Florida’s Space Coast with 2.6 million pounds of thrust.

A Vega rocket is set to deliver two satellites into similar but distinct orbits for the Italian military and the French and Israeli space agencies. Follow key events scheduled during the launch with this timeline.

More than three weeks after a faulty electrical component halted a countdown moments before liftoff, an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Friday with two commercial communications satellites. Launch occurred at 2156 GMT (5:56 p.m. EDT).