Live coverage: Soyuz capsule brings home three-man crew

An Orbital ATK Cygnus supply ship packed with 3.7 tons of cargo, supplies and experiments rode an Antares rocket into orbit from Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Sunday, setting course on a two-day pursuit of the International Space Station.

SpaceX launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on Monday after a first stage sensor problem halted a countdown Sunday. Liftoff from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT), and the first stage landed at nearby Cape Canaveral around nine minutes later. The upper stage’s flight entered a pre-planned news blackout a few minutes after launch.

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.