Video: Soyuz MS-01 leaves the space station for landing

Two days after launch from Kazakhstan, a Russian Soyuz ferry ship glided to a smooth docking with the International Space Station Saturday, bringing a veteran cosmonaut, a Frenchman making his first flight and NASA’s most experienced female astronaut to the lab complex.

A forecast of low ceilings, thick clouds and rainy weather Thursday has led NASA and Northrop Grumman officials to push back the launch of an Antares rocket and a space station-bound supply ship from Virginia’s Eastern Shore to Friday morning.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke will take command of the orbiting outpost as Expedition 74 begins with the undocking of Soyuz MS-27 on Monday, Dec. 8. The International Space Station is set to be de-orbited around 2030 or soon thereafter.