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

One week after two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut arrived at the International Space Station for a six-month stay, the three crew members they’re replacing packed up their Soyuz spacecraft for a fiery plunge back to Earth Wednesday evening to close out a 196-day mission.

The grapple mechanism installed on one end of the space station’s robot arm during a spacewalk Tuesday is experiencing problems. It will be removed during a re-planned spacewalk Monday and the original fitting will be re-installed, NASA said Friday.

A Soyuz rocket blasted off from Russia’s northern cosmodrome Sunday, adding another satellite to the nation’s Glonass navigation fleet to replace an aging spacecraft.