Live coverage: Vega rocket deploys second Sentinel satellite

United Launch Alliance called off the planned liftoff of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket and a classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Wednesday after indications of elevated hydrogen concentrations around one of the launcher’s main engines. Three previous launch attempts were scrubbed by technical concerns and bad weather.

A veteran Russian commander, Italian flight engineer and a rookie NASA astronaut lifted off at 1628 GMT (12:28 p.m. EDT) Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, kicking off a six-hour flight to the International Space Station. The crew docked with the station at 2248 GMT (6:48 p.m. EDT).

Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut flying to the International Space Station for a fourth time lifted off Friday at 2126 GMT (5:26 p.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio reached the orbiting research complex less than six hours later at 0309 GMT (11:09 p.m. EDT).