Live coverage: Soyuz blasts off on third mission for O3b

An Indian radar observation satellite designed to collect information on natural disasters, pollution and monitor the military activity of India’s neighbors lifted off at 4:55 a.m. EST (0955 GMT) Wednesday on top of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, the second PSLV mission in two weeks.

Running nearly a month late because of work to repair a damaged cable, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft was primed for launch early Wednesday to carry two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut to the International Space Station, boosting the lab’s crew back to six.

A Soyuz rocket arrived at a historic launch pad in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, where ground crews lifted the booster vertical to begin final preparations for liftoff Thursday with two Americans and one Russian heading for the International Space Station.