Live coverage: Soyuz capsule brings home three-man crew

NASA has selected six companies to work on designs for deep space habitat modules that could be used by astronauts living and working near the moon as technology is developed for eventual flights to Mars, the agency announced Tuesday.

A Christmas Eve reading from the book of Genesis by the Apollo 8 astronauts — commander Frank Borman, lunar module pilot Bill Anders and command module pilot Jim Lovell — from lunar orbit in 1968.

Rocket Lab’s first launch of the year lifted off Thursday at 7:27 p.m. EDT (2327 GMT) after a four-day delay to replace a video transmitter and wait for improved weather. The company’s Electron rocket launched from Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand’s North Island with a technology demonstration satellite for DARPA, the U.S. military research and development agency.