Live coverage: Ariane 5 soars into space from Kourou

After scrubbing a launch attempt Friday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday on a mission to send communications satellites from OneWeb and Iridium into polar orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Liftoff occurred at 6:16 a.m. PDT (9:16 a.m. EDT; 1316 UTC).

Closing out a banner year of launches, an Ariane 5 rocket thundered into space Wednesday from French Guiana with two commercial communications satellites manufactured in California to expand television and broadband access in Latin America and broadcast television programming in Japan.

Launching into a sun-splashed summertime afternoon sky, a previously-flown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed into orbit from Florida’s east coast Friday with a U.S.-built, Bulgarian-owned television broadcasting satellite.