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

The quartet is set to liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, July 31. Their Dragon spacecraft, Endeavour, will fly for a record-setting sixth time.

SpaceX tested astronaut slidewire escape baskets and fire suppression capabilities Friday at launch pad 39A in Florida, demonstrating systems that would be activated in the event of an emergency before liftoff of a crewed mission.

Two weeks after a sensor problem forced a delay, an Ariane 5 rocket blasted off at 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 GMT) Saturday from French Guiana with two commercial communications satellites to cover the United States and Japan, and a Northrop Grumman-built robotic satellite servicing mission designed to link up with another spacecraft in geostationary orbit.