Photos: Atlas 5 rocket aims for International Space Station

A veteran cosmonaut, a German volcanologist and a Navy test pilot-turned-astronaut undocked from the International Space Station and returned to Earth, descending through low clouds to a jarring touchdown on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 165-day stay in orbit.

A Japanese resupply freighter and its H-2B rocket booster rolled out of the vehicle assembly building at the Tanegashima Space Center just before sunrise Friday for the half-hour trip to the launch pad.

The predawn launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center of a Falcon Heavy rocket June 25 was the first nighttime liftoff of SpaceX’s heavy-lifter, the most powerful launcher currently operational anywhere in the world. The Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters returned to Cape Canaveral less than nine minutes later.