Video: Time lapse of ATV’s final departure from ISS

A three-man crew from Russia, the United States and Italy climbed inside a Soyuz spacecraft and rocketed into orbit Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on course for the International Space Station.

Preparations for the planned liftoff Thursday of a SpaceX Dragon capsule with a four-person crew to the International Space Station cleared another readiness review Tuesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but officials are tracking marginal wind and sea conditions in downrange abort zones in the Atlantic Ocean that could force a launch delay.

A spherical U.S. Navy spacecraft the size of a beach ball spring-ejected from a new satellite deployer outside the International Space Station last week, debuting a fresh way for low-budget space missions to reach orbit.