Q&A with Greg Wyler, founder and chairman of OneWeb (members only)

The Italian PRISMA Earth observation satellite is set to ride a Vega launcher into a 382-mile-high (615-kilometer) orbit Thursday night from French Guiana on a mission that will take less than one hour from liftoff until spacecraft separation.

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket took off at 1:12 a.m. EDT (0512 GMT) Saturday carrying five payloads for the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA and the University of New South Wales at Canberra in Australia. The launch was the first for Rocket Lab since January due to delays related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 194 feet tall and and weighing a million pounds, unleashes 1.6 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and two side-mounted solid boosters to launch the secret NROL-52 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral.