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

An eight-ton cargo ship destined for the International Space Station was hoisted aboard its United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur booster rocket today in preparation for liftoff to the orbiting laboratory next week.

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft departed the International Space Station on Wednesday at 9:19 a.m. EDT (1319 GMT), concluding the commercial spaceship’s eighth visit to the complex. Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean occurred at 2:55 p.m. EDT (1855 GMT).

A Soyuz rocket climbed away from a historic launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday with three new crew members heading for the International Space Station.