Video: Fourth X-37B launch highlights

Unimpeded by rain showers and a dark gray blanket of low clouds, an Ariane 5 rocket thundered away from a European-run space base in the jungle of French Guiana Tuesday to place four Galileo navigation satellites in orbit, an on-target deployment that should improve the location accuracy of new smartphones around the world.

The next satellite for the U.S. military’s communications network, this one purchased by five international allies, has arrived in Florida for its launch in March atop a Delta 4 rocket.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered into space from Cape Canaveral and deployed a Turkish communications satellite Thursday night, the first of more than 40 Falcon rocket missions scheduled this year from launch pads in Florida and California.