Falcon 9 launches with GovSat 1 as seen from Kennedy Space Center (members only)

An Indian radar observation satellite designed to collect information on natural disasters, pollution and monitor the military activity of India’s neighbors lifted off at 4:55 a.m. EST (0955 GMT) Wednesday on top of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, the second PSLV mission in two weeks.

Eight miniature weather observatories, each the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, were installed on a specially-designed deployer module and mounted on the front end of an air-launched Pegasus XL rocket to prepare for Monday’s flight into orbit.

A European-built Ariane 5 rocket launched Tuesday with a U.S.-made communications satellite for Tokyo-based Sky Perfect JSAT and a South Korean environmental observatory. The heavy-lift Ariane 5 launcher took off from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 5:18 p.m. EST (2218 GMT; 7:18 p.m. French Guiana time).