Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

An Ariane 5 rocket has blasted off from a tropical launch pad in French Guiana on nearly 3 million pounds of thrust, hoisting two U.S.-built communications satellites to orbit for commercial owners in Brazil and Japan.

The SpaDeX mission will see two spacecraft orbit together before performing a docking demo needed on future missions. Liftoff happened at 10 p.m. IST (11:30 a.m. EST, 1630 UTC).

A dozen SuperDove nanosatellites with improved vision are set to join Planet’s Earth-observing fleet Tuesday night (U.S. time) after riding into orbit aboard an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle alongside an Indian mapping payload.