Live coverage: Soyuz crew lands in Kazakhstan

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket that will boost NASA’s latest communications relay satellite into space is targeting an Aug. 20 liftoff at 7:56 a.m. EDT (1156 GMT).

An on-target touchdown in Kazakhstan punctuated a 115-day space mission for Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Japanese flight engineer Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins this weekend. Photographers recorded the moment with these vivid photos.

Ground crews at the Guiana Space Center in South America have spent the last few months preparing the BepiColombo spacecraft, a tandem mission with European and Japanese science orbiters bound for Mercury, for launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.