Live coverage: New crew arrives at International Space Station

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket, modified for crewed launches, rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility Wednesday for the 1,800-foot trek to pad 41 in preparation for liftoff with Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on an unpiloted mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two cosmonauts blasted off from Kazakhstan Friday and docked with the International Space Station after a two-orbit chase, the first step in a record crew rotation requiring two launches and two landings with four different spacecraft in just three weeks.

Five years after a balky valve kept it from entering orbit around Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki space probe is again approaching the sweltering planet for another shot at completing its science mission in December, officials said Friday.