Live coverage: 400th Proton rocket takes off with Russian satellite

More than three weeks after a faulty electrical component halted a countdown moments before liftoff, an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from French Guiana on Friday with two commercial communications satellites. Launch occurred at 2156 GMT (5:56 p.m. EDT).

A Soviet-era missile originally built to deliver nuclear warheads to the United States in wartime fired into space for a much different purpose Tuesday, carrying a European environmental satellite into orbit to help track the effects of climate change.

Another batch of Starlink Internet satellites shared a ride into orbit with three of Planet’s SkySat Earth-imaging satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Saturday. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:21 a.m. EDT (0921 GMT) from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.