Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off on commercial flight

United Launch Alliance launched the U.S. military’s SBIRS GEO 5 early warning satellite into orbit aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A launch attempt Monday was scrubbed during fueling preps due to a faulty temperature sensor. Liftoff of ULA’s workhorse rocket, fitted with two strap-on solid-fueled boosters, occurred at 1:37 p.m. EDT (1737 GMT).

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral at 3:28 a.m. EDT (0728 GMT) today to place a classified surveillance satellite into space for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. Follow the ascent in our live journal.

An ambitious mission of exploration launched from Japan at 0422 GMT Wednesday (11:22 p.m. EST Tuesday). An H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with Hayabusa 2, starting a six-year journey to collect rocks from an asteroid and return them to Earth.