An Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket hefted the Mission Extension Vehicle-2 (MEV-2) into space Sunday (July 31), putting the vehicle en route to an Intelsat satellite waiting for a boost into a higher orbit. Riding along on the rocket were two satellites for broadband communications.

The launch lifted off from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana at 7:04 p.m. local time (6:04 p.m. EDT or 2204 GMT), marking the fifth launch of 2020 for Arianespace. 

It's been a long road for the launch. The mission was originally scheduled for July 28, but was delayed to allow "additional technical checks required under the fairing and the Ariane dual launch system," Arianespace said in a statement at the time. Bad weather prevented subsequent launch tries added a few minutes of delays to today's launch. (It was initially scheduled to lift off 31 minutes earlier at 5:33 p.m. EDT or 2133 GMT.)