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

The three newest residents of the International Space Station sped into orbit Wednesday aboard a Soyuz launcher after liftoff into an overcast sky over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. These photos show the crew putting on their spacesuits and their mid-afternoon launch.

Wrapping up a six-month mission in orbit, three Chinese astronauts departed the Tiangong space station Saturday and landed in the remote Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 6:33 p.m. EDT (2233 UTC).

Two space station astronauts are gearing up for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Friday to replace a presumably shorted out solar array voltage regulator that knocked one of the lab’s eight power channels out of action late last year.