Live coverage: Soyuz crew capsule departs station, lands in Kazakhstan

NASA Astronaut Shannon Lucid spent six months aboard the Mir Space Station in 1996. In this video she gives a guided tour of the Russian space outpost.

A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off Friday from French Guiana with four broadband satellites for the O3b network, which provides high-speed connectivity to developing countries, ships and other customers who lack a reliable Internet link.

In a major shakeup at NASA Headquarters, agency Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday that Bill Gerstenmaier, the widely respected director of human spaceflight, has been replaced in the midst of an ambitious push to meet the Trump administration’s directive to send astronauts back to the moon within five years.