Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

A capsule carrying extraterrestrial specimens collected by Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is scheduled for landing in South Australia on Dec. 6 to wrap up a six-year round-trip mission to an asteroid, officials announced this week.

Sunday’s flight of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was scrubbed due to a wildfire burning south of the pad. The launch delay allows crews to remain in place to battle the blaze. The lack of Range availability this week means the next launch try won’t come until Sept. 26.

After three weeks of intense analysis and troubleshooting, European Space Agency flight controllers have finally succeeded in freeing a jammed boom critical to the Jupiter-bound JUICE probe’s ice-penetrating radar instrument.