Live coverage: International crew lands in Kazakhstan

A collection of pad photos from the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial cargo-delivery spacecraft for the International Space Station.

Two Russian cosmonauts used the International Space Station’s Poisk docking compartment as an airlock for the first time Wednesday in a six-hour 48-minute spacewalk to begin preparing the nearly identical Pirs module for removal next year. A new laboratory module will be parked in its place later.

SpaceX conducted a static fire test of the SuperDraco abort thrusters on the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Wednesday afternoon at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.