Watch the Falcon 9 light its engines for a static test fire (members only)

A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set to launch the U.S. Air Force’s fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite from Cape Canaveral. This timeline shows the major mission events planned over a nearly six-hour flight to an optimized geostationary transfer orbit.

The European Space Agency’s $550 million Aeolus science mission, the product of a drawn-out 16-year development effort that required engineers to master new technologies, is in the starting blocks on a launch pad in French Guiana awaiting liftoff Wednesday to monitor wind speeds from space for the first time on a global scale.

Technicians working in the jungle of French Guiana have installed four new European Galileo navigation satellites on top of their Ariane 5 launcher, and filled the rocket’s upper stage with storable liquid propellants for liftoff Tuesday.