Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

Boeing’s Starliner capsule, carrying an instrumented astronaut test dummy nicknamed “Rosie,” is on track for launch Friday on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station, mission managers said Tuesday. The flight is a major milestone in NASA’s push to resume launching U.S. crews from American soil.

Check out photos of Wednesday’s middle-of-the-night launch of a three-man crew from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, kicking off a six-hour journey from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station.

SpaceX called off the planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket Friday at Cape Canaveral, halting the countdown less than a minute before liftoff to allow time to perform additional ground system checkouts before the mission’s next launch opportunity no earlier than Sunday.