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

Japan’s fifth HTV cargo freighter completed a five-day flight to the International Space Station on Monday, making a glacial laser-guided approach to the complex with a 9,500-pound package of food, spare parts and experiments.

Three space fliers rocketed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, setting off in pursuit of the International Space Station to swap out Soyuz lifeboats for the research lab’s one-year crew. Check out imagery of the late morning liftoff.

A Soyuz rocket arrived at a historic launch pad in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, where ground crews lifted the booster vertical to begin final preparations for liftoff Thursday with two Americans and one Russian heading for the International Space Station.