Live coverage: Soyuz crew capsule departs station, lands in Kazakhstan

The Russian Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft and booster rocket were rolled out to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday in preparation for liftoff Wednesday on a two-day trek to the International Space Station.

SpaceX’s proposal to land astronauts on the moon using the company’s reusable Starship vehicle could be “game-changing” for space exploration, but comes with risks and complexity that “threaten the schedule viability” to achieve NASA’s goal of returning crews moon by the end of 2024, agency officials said.

One week after two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut arrived at the International Space Station, the three crew members they’re replacing strapped into their own Soyuz spacecraft, undocked and returned to Earth Wednesday with a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 196-day mission.