Live coverage: Dragon cargo craft arrives at space station

China led the world with 34 orbital launch attempts in 2019 — including two failures — followed by 22 flights from Russian-operated launch pads and 21 satellite delivery missions originating from U.S. spaceports, all of which were successful.

A Japanese resupply freighter and its H-2B rocket booster rolled out of the vehicle assembly building at the Tanegashima Space Center just before sunrise Friday for the half-hour trip to the launch pad.

A refurbished SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship linked up with the International Space Station early Saturday more than 260 miles above Earth, delivering four veteran astronauts to the orbiting research complex and temporarily raising the lab’s crew complement to 11.