Live coverage: Japanese cargo craft arrives at space station

Watch a zoomed in view of the Falcon 9 rocket with the first Crew Dragon capsule atop, briefly fire its engines for a crucial pre-launch test on Jan. 24, 2019 at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX launched an unpiloted Crew Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Sunday. SpaceX triggered an escape maneuver using the Dragon’s thrusters about a minute-and-a-half after liftoff to verify the launch abort engines can safely carry the capsule — and astronauts on future missions — away from a failing rocket.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA shuttle veteran blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday and set off after the International Space Station.