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

Track the progress of the MASCOT lander, a tiny robot developed in Germany and France, as it explores asteroid Ryugu for a daring mission to hop across the austere world’s boulder-strewn landscape, taking pictures and collecting scientific data along the way. The robotic probe was released from the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft around 0200 GMT Wednesday (10 p.m. EDT Tuesday), and touched down a few minutes later.

A Soyuz rocket and Progress supply ship packed with nearly 3 tons of cargo, provisions and fuel for the International Space Station rolled out to a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday.

Boeing engineers have completed hotfire testing on a flight-like model of the Starliner crew capsule, clearing a major hurdle before a pad abort test and a demonstration flight to the International Space Station later this summer, Boeing announced Friday.