Video: Liftoff of Atlas 5 on space station cargo mission

Check out a pictorial retrospective on Friday’s launch of three new space station crew members from Kazakhstan, riding an iconic Soyuz booster to orbit and arriving at the 250-mile-high research complex less than six hours later.

The Russian manufacturer of Angola’s first communications satellite announced Friday that it has reestablished contact with the spacecraft after engineers stopped receiving signals shortly after its launch earlier this week.

Chinese rockets performed two satellite delivery missions in a three-hour span Wednesday, carrying a commercial Earth-imaging satellite and five mysterious surveillance payloads into orbit.