Live coverage: Cygnus supply ship departs space station

A sequence of images from the NASA TV broadcast of the ill-fated launch of the Antares rocket.

A Russian Soyuz booster and an automated Progress resupply ship reached their launch pad Friday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, two days before firing into orbit test out a new expedited rendezvous sequence that will culminate in the Progress spacecraft’s docking with the International Space Station just three-and-a-half hours after launch.

Seven small satellites from Canon Electronics, Planet and In-Space Missions launched from New Zealand on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket Saturday at 5:19:36 p.m. EDT (2119:36 GMT), but the payloads and launch vehicle were lost after a problem during the second stage burn.