Live coverage: Kennedy Space Center to reopen Friday

Returning home after a 64-day test flight, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blazed through Earth’s atmosphere and parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Sunday, a final major step before NASA formally certifies the crew capsule for operational missions to the International Space Station.

NASA’s pioneering Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to outperform its design specifications, having now notched up more than 50 record-breaking forays across the Red Planet’s surface, 10 times as many flights as originally planned for.

The NROL-149 mission was the sixth and final mission of the year supporting the agency’s proliferated architecture. Liftoff from pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 5:19 a.m. PST (8:19 a.m. EST, 1319 UTC).