Video: Atlas 5 rocket launches space station cargo mission

Wrapping up a busy week on the International Space Station, a crew of three boarded their Soyuz landing craft and headed for Earth on Friday. Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, the most experienced space crewman in history, was at the controls, along with Danish and Kazakh crew members, and landed in Kazakhstan at 8:51 p.m. EDT Friday (0051 GMT Saturday).

The sixth commercial cargo delivery by Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft, and the first using an Antares rocket since a launch failure in 2014, will carry more than 5,000 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station.

The 27 Kuiper satellites will head to low Earth orbit on an Atlas 5 rocket flying in a 551 configuration, using five solid rocket boosters. ULA launched its rocket at 6:54 a.m. EDT (1054 UTC) on Monday, June 23.