Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

A Soyuz rocket carrying a Russian commander, a NASA co-pilot and a United Arab Emirates guest cosmonaut blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday, chased down the International Space Station and glided in for a picture-perfect docking, kicking off an unprecedented end-of-year schedule that includes up to a dozen spacewalks.

Boeing officials said Monday the company’s Starliner crew capsule will fly a second time without astronauts after software problems and other issues plagued a first test flight in December, preventing the ship from reaching the International Space Station.

A commercial Cygnus freighter made a science-enabling delivery to the International Space Station today, bringing about 7,500 pounds of cargo to the outpost under NASA’s privatized logistics shipment program.