Live coverage: Two Russians, one American arrive at space station

NASA’s live television coverage of the first human spaceflight to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in nearly nine years will include features familiar to launch viewers, and new camera views to document the historic flight of astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.

SpaceX test-fired the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s eight SuperDraco abort engines Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, paving the way for a high-altitude rocket escape test and demonstrating engineers have apparently fixed the problem that triggered an explosion during a similar ground firing in April.

Arianespace launched a solid-fueled Vega rocket from French Guiana at 9:51 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0151 GMT Thursday) after delays of more than five months caused by the coronavirus pandemic and unfavorable upper level winds. The Italian-built launcher will deploy 53 small satellites into orbit.