Live coverage: Ariane 5 blasts off on commercial flight

An Indian navigation satellite lifted off Thursday aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, heading for a perch more than 22,000 miles over Africa to grow the country’s independent space-based positioning fleet.

Japan’s Astro-H mission, an X-ray astronomy observatory designed to shed light on black holes and the unseen structure of the universe, lifted off aboard an H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at 0845 GMT (3:45 a.m. EST) Wednesday.

A European Vega rocket lifted off Tuesday from the Guiana Space Center on the northern shoreline of South America with a high-resolution reconnaissance satellite for the Moroccan government. Launch occurred at 8:42:31 p.m. EST Tuesday (0142:31 GMT Wednesday) from Kourou, French Guiana.