Live coverage: Veteran three-man crew docks with space station

One week after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft departed the International Space Station and brought three crew members back to Earth, another Soyuz carrying a veteran cosmonaut and a first-time NASA flight engineer is ready for launch Thursday on a quick four-orbit flight to the orbiting lab complex.

Launch crews in French Guiana have mounted an innovative European space plane on top of a solid-fueled Vega launcher for a Feb. 11 suborbital test flight.

A U.S.-built commercial communications craft owned by Intelsat and a new node for Europe’s laser data relay satellite network rocketed into orbit Tuesday from Kourou, French Guiana, on top of an Ariane 5 rocket.