Live coverage: Atlas 5 blasts off from California

The French military’s newest sharp-eyed optical surveillance satellite lifted off at 1637 GMT (11:37 a.m. EST) Wednesday from French Guiana aboard a Russian-built Soyuz launcher, marking Arianespace’s 11th and final launch of 2018. The Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage will place the CSO 1 spacecraft into orbit around 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth. Managers delayed the launch from Tuesday due to unfavorable high-altitude winds.

Seven weeks to the day after their launch was postponed by a massive wildfire and the aftermath, a commercial Atlas 5 rocket and Earth-imaging satellite are scheduled to fly on Sunday, Nov. 6 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

India’s first dedicated astronomical observatory lifted off at 0430 GMT (12:30 a.m. EDT) Monday aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, riding into a 400-mile-high orbit to begin a five-year mission studying the births and deaths of stars.