Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches NASA’s Psyche on mission to a metal asteroid

A Soyuz FG rocket thundered to life and shot into orbit smoothly Monday carrying three crew members on a six-hour flight to the International Space Station. The problem-free ascent came less than two months after an Oct. 11 launch abort that forced a different crew to carry out safe-but-scary emergency landing.

The Starlink 10-34 mission was SpaceX’s 20th Falcon 9 launch of the year so far. Liftoff from pad 40 occurred at 8:41:40 p.m. EST (0141:40).

Two NASA astronauts will take part in the first all-female spacewalk this week, a critical outing to restore lost power in the wake of an equipment failure that cropped up after new batteries were installed in the International Space Station’s solar power system during two earlier spacewalks.