Q&A with Josef Aschbacher, director of ESA’s Earth observation programs (members only)

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).

Meteorologists predict mostly sunny skies, mild temperatures and light winds Sunday for the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Central Coast with a $364 million oceanography satellite for U.S. and European science institutions.

Orbital ATK’s Pegasus XL rocket will take about eight minutes to reach orbit with NASA’s eight CYGNSS weather research microsatellites, then comes deployment of the spacecraft more than 300 miles above Earth.