Live coverage: Soyuz capsule brings home station crew

Boeing and SpaceX hope to launch commercial crew ferry ships on long-awaited test flights later this year, but both companies face major challenges getting the spacecraft certified before late 2019 when seats aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft will no longer be easily available for NASA space station crews, officials told lawmakers Wednesday.

A Russian Soyuz rocket topped with two European Galileo navigation satellites soared into orbit before dawn Tuesday, vaulting through low clouds hanging over its jungle launch base in French Guiana.

Riding a self-propelled transporter, an Orbital ATK Antares rocket rolled out to it launch pad Thursday on Virginia’s Eastern Shore for final preparations to send a Cygnus supply ship to the International Space Station.