Live coverage: Proton fires into space with Eutelsat 9B

Fresh off the successful launch and initial checkout of two of its spacecraft earlier this month, Israel’s top satellite manufacturer sees a robust global market for new low-altitude reconnaissance payloads, but little international demand for its communications satellites.

The GovSat 1 communications satellite for SES and the government of Luxembourg lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad at 4:25 p.m. EST (2125 GMT) Wednesday.

Firing into space from the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a Russian Proton rocket guided a European television broadcast satellite into orbit Saturday. Check out photos of the Proton rocket’s nighttime liftoff with the Astra 2G satellite.