Live coverage: Russian-American-British crew launches toward space station

This photo gallery shows the commercial Cygnus cargo resupplier for the International Space Station on Monday at Kennedy Space Center being encapsulated in the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket’s payload fairing for the planned Dec. 3 liftoff.

NASA officials gave approval Tuesday for SpaceX to begin regular crew rotation flights to the International Space Station with the launch of four astronauts set for Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, signaling a transition from development to operations for the human-rated Dragon spacecraft.

The International Space Station crew reaches out with the Canadian robotic arm and grabs the Cygnus OA-6 commercial cargo ship filled with 7,485 pounds of supplies, food and science gear.