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

Rocket Lab’s first launch of the year lifted off Thursday at 7:27 p.m. EDT (2327 GMT) after a four-day delay to replace a video transmitter and wait for improved weather. The company’s Electron rocket launched from Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand’s North Island with a technology demonstration satellite for DARPA, the U.S. military research and development agency.

NASA commentator Dan Huot has everything you need to know about Russia’s Soyuz space capsule and provides a tour inside the cramped spacecraft, which, since the end of the shuttle program, has been the only way to ferry cosmonauts and astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

SpaceX conducted a final Launch Readiness Review on Monday ahead of the scheduled liftoff Wednesday of NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Launch remains set for 4:33:33 p.m. EDT (2033:33 GMT) Wednesday, weather permitting.