Live coverage: Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral

Just three weeks after the Delta 4-Heavy rocket left the launch pad on its way to a successful satellite-deployment mission for U.S. national security, a smaller booster in the family has rolled out for its August military flight.

A pair of innovative satellites for ViaSat and Eutelsat, valued at approximately $800 million, are scheduled to lift off Thursday on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana, hauling the heaviest and costliest commercial payload ever launched.

With nine engines firing, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Wednesday morning from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 60 Starlink satellites on-board.