Video: Change of command aboard International Space Station

Russia’s Progress MS-05 supply ship lifted off Wednesday on top of a Soyuz-U rocket, climbing into orbit from a snow-covered launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the way to the International Space Station.

A U.S. Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm, a Russian Air Force MiG-29 fighter pilot, and a former flight controller for Russia’s Mir space station arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, with a smooth docking aboard a Soyuz spaceship at 0952 GMT (5:52 a.m. EDT), two days after a successful launch from Kazakhstan.

Russia plans to stay part of the International Space Station partnership until 2024, then undock its modules to create a standalone base in orbit, the Russian space agency announced Tuesday.