Live coverage: Proton soars into space with Inmarsat satellite

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:49 a.m. local time (8:49 a.m. EDT; 1249 GMT) Thursday on the classified National Reconnaissance Office NROL-55 mission.

A small Japanese satellite scheduled for launch Friday on a Rocket Lab Electron booster will release hundreds of colorful sky pellets to fall into the atmosphere next year, creating an artificial meteor shower that could be visible to millions.

A Soyuz-2.1b booster loaded with 34 satellites for OneWeb’s global Internet network rolled out of its assembly building Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and rode a rail car to its launch pad for final preflight checks before liftoff Thursday.