Live coverage: H-2A rocket blasts off with latest Japanese weather satellite

Track the progress of the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft and its three-person crew through Wednesday’s countdown and launch, followed two days later by docking with the International Space Station on Friday.

India launched the 40th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle mission Friday carrying an Earth observation satellite and 30 secondary payloads from 15 nations. Liftoff occurred at 0359 GMT Friday (11:59 p.m. EDT Thursday).

Japan’s Hitomi X-ray observatory, beset by an attitude control problem that has disrupted communications since March 29, may have shed one of its power-generating solar panels or deployable telescope in orbit and is spinning too fast to contact ground controllers, officials said.