Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

A Vega rocket fired into space at 8:52 p.m. EST Monday (0152 GMT Tuesday) from the Guiana Space Center in South America, but the mission deviated from its planned trajectory. The rocket was boosting a Spanish Earth observation satellite and a French research payload into orbit.

A sophisticated communications satellite launches into orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket Sunday to bring residential high-speed Internet to parts of the U.S. that must look to space for connectivity.

An early bird rocket launch from the Florida spaceport will take to the skies before dawn Saturday when an Atlas 5 lofts a classified U.S. government satellite.