Live coverage: Emirates Mars Mission launches from Japan

A Japanese resupply freighter and its H-2B rocket booster rolled out of the vehicle assembly building at the Tanegashima Space Center just before sunrise Friday for the half-hour trip to the launch pad.

SpaceX and NASA launched a planet-hunting satellite Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, two days after calling off a launch attempt to conduct additional guidance, navigation and control analyses. Liftoff occurred at 6:51 p.m. EDT (2251 GMT), and the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Eutelsat is the first commercial company to commit to launching on Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket, under a five-launch agreement announced Monday in conjunction with fresh contracts for Arianespace to haul a French spy satellite and a pair of Indian communications satellites into orbit.