Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

A nearly 180-foot-tall (54.8-meter) Ariane 5 rocket rolled out of its integration hangar to the ELA-3 launch zone Wednesday at the Guiana Space Center in South America, moving into position for liftoff Thursday with two geostationary communications satellites.

Later this month, ground teams will send commands for the InSight lander on Mars to use its robotic arm in a series of carefully-choreographed movements to help inspect, and potentially assist, one of the mission’s main geologic instruments that stalled as it hammered into the Red Planet’s crust earlier this year.

Scientists examining data from the Cassini mission’s final months reported this week unexpected measurements of Saturn’s gravity field and outer atmosphere, suggesting they may have to revisit theories about the planet’s rings and the forces that generate magnetic fields.