Live coverage: Two satellites lift off aboard Ariane 5

Engineers have put the finishing touches on a prototype spaceship representing a leap in European space technology, aiming for liftoff Feb. 11 for a flight 260 miles into space and back to Earth for a pinpoint splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

A Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:55 a.m. EST (0655 GMT) Sunday with the Arktika-M 1 spacecraft, the first in a new line of Russian satellites designed to provide weather observations over the Arctic.

A three-man crew closed out a 196-day expedition in orbit late Wednesday with a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Soyuz commander Anatoly Ivanishin, and flight engineer Ivan Vagner undocked from the International Space Station at 7:32 p.m. EDT (2332 GMT) Wednesday, and the trio landed at 10:54 p.m. EDT (0254 GMT).