Live coverage: Space station crew home after 115-day mission

Engineers plan to test small modifications to a payload shroud on a European Ariane 5 rocket launch Friday from French Guiana, gathering data on changes introduced to meet stringent criteria for the launch of the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope in late 2021.

A prototype space lab module for China’s planned space station re-entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean Friday to end a nearly three-year mission that included a visit from Chinese astronauts and an in-orbit refueling demonstration.

Astronauts will likely perform a previously-unplanned demonstration of the Orion spacecraft’s deep space rendezvous capabilities in a high-altitude orbit around Earth on the crew capsule’s first piloted test flight, now scheduled for 2023.