Live coverage: Japanese cargo craft arrives at space station

Wrapping up a nine-day mission, four commercial astronauts on Axiom Space’s second flight to the International Space Station departed the orbiting research complex at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 UTC) Tuesday. The crew rode back to Earth inside a SpaceX Dragon crew capsule for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico at 11:04 p.m. EDT (0304 UTC).

With three space station fliers safely back on Earth after a pinpoint landing Sunday, three fresh crew members made final preparations for launch Wednesday from Kazakhstan to boost the lab’s crew back to six.

Russian ground controllers decided Tuesday to delay the docking of a Progress supply freighter to the International Space Station until Thursday after telemetry signals indicated two radar navigation antennas may not have deployed following the ship’s launch from Kazakhstan.