Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

A veteran Russian commander, Italian flight engineer and a rookie NASA astronaut lifted off at 1628 GMT (12:28 p.m. EDT) Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, kicking off a six-hour flight to the International Space Station. The crew docked with the station at 2248 GMT (6:48 p.m. EDT).

SpaceX’s third Falcon Heavy rocket is set for liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the heavy-lift launcher will head on an easterly course over the Atlantic Ocean atop more than 5 million pounds of thrust.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was rolled out to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 on Wednesday morning, emerging from the Vertical Integration Facility assembly hangar where the two-stage rocket was put together.