Live coverage: International Space Station crew lands in Kazakhstan

NASA has placed an order with Boeing for the first operational mission to ferry a crew to the International Space Station in a new era of commercial human spaceflight.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket topped by the Air Force’s X-37B miniature space shuttle blasted off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 today to deliver the spaceplane into orbit.

Three crew members departed the International Space Station on Wednesday and descended back to Earth, touching down in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz TMA-14M capsule at 10:08 p.m. EDT (0208 GMT Thursday).