Live coverage: Japanese cargo craft arrives at space station

Russia may start sending just two of its cosmonauts to the International Space Station at a time, according to media reports and comments by a NASA manager, in a cost-cutting measure that could reduce the size of the research lab’s crew to five.

An Ariane 5 rocket lifted off Thursday at 2345 GMT (7:45 p.m. EDT), flying from a French Guiana launch pad to geostationary transfer orbit with the ViaSat 2 and Eutelsat 172B communications satellites.

Crowned with a commercial cargo capsule with 5,100 pounds of provisions and experiments, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on Saturday, sending the Dragon supply ship on a two-day trek to the International Space Station. See photos of the predawn liftoff.