Live coverage: Soyuz launches on 13th flight from French Guiana

Russia’s space agency says a Kazakh cosmonaut will fly to the International Space Station on 10-day mission in September, replacing British singer Sarah Brightman, who backed out of the mission in May.

Nearly a year-and-a-half after arriving at the red planet, Europe’s ExoMars orbiter is finally approaching a planned perch around 250 miles over the rust-colored world after repeatedly dipping into the Martian atmosphere to lower its orbit.

The pressurized crew module and European-built service module for NASA’s first Orion spacecraft to travel to the moon will be joined together for the first time in the coming weeks at the Kennedy Space Center, with preparations — at least for Orion — on a pace to be ready for launch on an unpiloted test flight next year.