Live coverage: Veteran three-man crew docks with space station

A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut and an Italian wrapping up her first space flight boarded a Russian Soyuz ferry craft early Thursday, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth, landing safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an extended 200-day mission.

Two Chinese military pilots rode a Long March 2F rocket into orbit Sunday, heading for the Tiangong 2 research lab to conduct experiments and practice procedures to be used on China’s future space station.

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander were recently presented to the media as they prepare for a tandem launch to the red planet in March.