https://apnews.com/98615037f19aa84d568e486a08446203 > SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A European spacecraft launched from South America Wednesday on a three-year mission to study planets in other solar systems. > The Characterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) mission blasted off from Kourou, French Guiana at 0854 GMT (3:54 a.m. EST) atop a Russian Soyuz rocket. The launch came 24 hours after a first attempt was delayed shortly before liftoff because of a software problem in the upper stage of the rocket.