Live coverage: European environmental satellite launches from Russia

Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, all spaceflight veterans, launched from Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz booster Wednesday to begin a two-day pursuit of the International Space Station. The crew docked with the orbiting research complex Friday at 1940 GMT (3:40 p.m. EDT) to begin a five-month stay.

An ambitious mission of exploration launched from Japan at 0422 GMT Wednesday (11:22 p.m. EST Tuesday). An H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with Hayabusa 2, starting a six-year journey to collect rocks from an asteroid and return them to Earth.

A bad input to the Ariane 5 rocket’s guidance system that was missed during pre-launch quality control checks caused the launcher to deviate from its expected flight path and place two commercial communications satellites in the wrong orbit Jan. 25, Arianespace announced Friday.