Live coverage: Vega rocket deploys second Sentinel satellite

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.

A pair of Earth-imaging satellites for the Italian military and a French-Israeli environmental monitoring project lifted off from French Guiana aboard a European Vega rocket at 0158:33 GMT Wednesday (9:58:33 p.m. EDT Tuesday).

NASA’s senior manager in charge of the development of the James Webb Space Telescope, Eric Smith, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the decision to reschedule its launch from October 2018 to the spring of 2019.