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

Arianespace’s launch team in French Guiana rolled an Ariane 5 booster to its launch pad Tuesday and readied the rocket for liftoff Wednesday with an Inmarsat satellite to connect airline passengers over Europe and an Indian communications craft.

The launch of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been delayed two days to July 22 after an issue with ground support equipment at the Kennedy Space Center held up encapsulation of the spacecraft inside the payload fairing of its Atlas 5 rocket.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with 51 small satellites, hosted payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles heading into polar orbit on the Transporter 7 mission. Liftoff occurred at 11:48 p.m. PDT Friday (2:48 a.m. EDT; 0648 UTC Saturday).