Live coverage: Delta 4 countdown and launch journal

SpaceX launched the first in a series of small satellite rideshare missions Sunday from Cape Canaveral, providing transportation for 143 U.S. and international spacecraft to low Earth orbit, a record number of satellites on a single flight. Liftoff occurred at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) Sunday after bad weather forced SpaceX to scrub a launch attempt Saturday morning.

A Russian Soyuz rocket flew into space from the edge of the Amazon on Thursday, carrying a pair of European navigation satellites in the third launch in nine months for the multibillion-dollar Galileo program. Liftoff from French Guiana occurred on time at 1151:56 GMT (6:51:56 a.m. EST).

Bulking up NASA’s constellation of tracking stations in the sky that provides critical links between orbiting spacecraft and ground control, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed a new communications hub in space today.