Live coverage: H-2A rocket delivers on 30th flight

Five years after a balky valve kept it from entering orbit around Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki space probe is again approaching the sweltering planet for another shot at completing its science mission in December, officials said Friday.

Water molecules have been directly detected across sunlit regions of the moon, not just in ultra-cold, permanently shadowed polar craters, scientists announced Monday, indicating the precious resource may be more easily accessible to future astronauts than previously thought.

A Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the Spektr-RG X-ray astronomy mission at 1230:57 GMT (8:30:57 a.m. EDT) Saturday.