Live coverage: Soyuz crew docks with International Space Station

A compact exoplanet observatory built in Europe to help astronomers determine the sizes of distant worlds around other stars is scheduled for launch Wednesday from French Guiana aboard a Soyuz rocket.

Wrapping up a six-month mission in orbit, three Chinese astronauts departed the Tiangong space station Saturday and landed in the remote Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 6:33 p.m. EDT (2233 UTC).

Watch the pre-launch news conference held Monday, March 21 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to preview liftoff of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus cargo ship aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket for the International Space Station.