Q&A with Giulio Ranzo, CEO of Avio (members only)

Take a walk around the Ariane 5 launch pad in French Guiana after the 16-story rocket arrived at the complex for liftoff Thursday with four European Galileo navigation satellites.

Weeks after the launch of an earlier trio of Chinese military satellites, another spacecraft triplet successfully took off Feb. 24 aboard a Long March 4C rocket on a clandestine mission that analysts believe may involve spying on foreign naval forces.

SpaceX rolled out the company’s first space-worthy Crew Dragon spacecraft and its Falcon 9 launcher to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first time Thursday, beginning a series of fit checks before the commercial spaceship takes off on its first orbital test flight.