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

The crew spent 197 days docked at the ISS and welcomed seven visiting vehicles while on orbit. Splashdown off the coast of Florida is anticipated around 5:50 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 12.

A Russian Soyuz rocket thundered to life with a burst of flame and shot away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday carrying an international crew of three aloft on a six-hour flight to the International Space Station.

NASA managers have ruled out putting a crew on board an Orion capsule atop the agency’s huge Space Launch System rocket for the gargantuan booster’s maiden flight in 2019, citing technical risks and higher costs, up to as much as $900 million, agency officials said Friday.