Photos of Vega's late-night blastoff

A lightweight Vega launcher raced into space from French Guiana on Tuesday night, boosting a European-built satellite into a 466-mile-high polar orbit with a high-resolution telescope to survey cities, natural resources, and disasters for Kazakh government authorities.

Launching on its third mission, the four-stage rocket ignited its solid-fueled first stage at 0135:15 GMT Wednesday (9:35 p.m. EDT; 10:35 p.m. local time Tuesday) and fired into the sky over the European-run Guiana Space Center on the northeast coast of South America.

The 98-foot-tall rocket surpassed the speed of sound within 30 seconds as it turned north over the Atlantic Ocean bound for a polar orbit with Kazakhstan's DZZ-HR imaging satellite.

See our Mission Status Center for the latest news on the mission.