Live coverage: Soyuz capsule brings home station crew

A new satellite design will debut with Friday’s launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana on a commercial mission to relay video, data and voice messages between the Americas and Europe.

Taking advantage of available astronaut time, the International Space Station’s crew will cast off the commercial Orbital ATK Cygnus freighter on Sunday morning nearly six weeks ahead of schedule.

Two days after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, three new crew members arrived Friday at the International Space Station to begin a six-month stay. Docking of the crew’s Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft to the station’s Rassvet module occurred at 9:01 a.m. EDT (1301 GMT).