Snapshots: Soyuz takes off

A European Vega rocket is scheduled to launch Tuesday from a tropical spaceport in South America carrying two Israeli-built satellites for the Italian military and a French-Israeli environmental observatory.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two cosmonauts blasted off from Kazakhstan Friday and docked with the International Space Station after a two-orbit chase, the first step in a record crew rotation requiring two launches and two landings with four different spacecraft in just three weeks.

Two NASA astronauts and an Italian flight engineer are sheltering in the space station’s Russian segment as mission control analyzes a possible leak of toxic ammonia coolant aboard the complex.