Scientists have discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. As technologies for studying these worlds continue to advance, researchers may someday be able to search for signs of life on exoplanets that are similar in size, composition, and temperature to Earth. But to do that they'll need new tools, like those being tested on the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

The European Vega-C rocket was lost shortly after lift-off from French Guiana on Tuesday with two Airbus satellites on board, the company behind the launch said.

The rocket had been trying to bring into orbit two Earth observation satellites built by Airbus, intended to join an existing network capable of capturing high-quality images of any point on the globe several times a day.

If it had been successful, it would have been the first commercial launch of the rocket since its inaugural journey on July 13.