Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

Four European navigation satellites fastened on top of an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 1836:07 GMT (1:36:07 p.m. EST) Tuesday to propel the Galileo navigation network closer to global service. The Ariane 5’s upper stage delivered the spacecraft to a circular orbit more than 14,000 miles above Earth around four hours after launch.

NASA’s robotic Dawn spacecraft is now getting its closest look at the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest resident of the asteroid belt, and mission managers say the probe has enough leftover propellant to keep flying into early 2017, several months beyond the prescribed end of its survey.

A command uplinked by mission control to resolve an error in the guidance system on the Israeli Beresheet moon lander inadvertently triggered a chain reaction that led to the shutdown of the probe’s main engine during descent to the lunar surface April 11, officials said this week.