Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

A team of SpaceX engineers is building a prototype of the spaceship Elon Musk hopes will one day carry people and cargo deep into the solar system, and it could begin low-altitude testing next year, kicking off a multi-step test campaign before eventually going into space, then perhaps the moon or Mars.

Completing an eight-day test flight around the moon to verify technologies for a planned lunar sample return mission, an unpiloted Chinese space capsule re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at blazing speed and parachuted to a successful landing.

Rocket Lab’s first mission since a failed launch in early July took off at 11:05 p.m. EDT Sunday (0305 GMT Monday) from New Zealand. The small satellite launcher carried into orbit a commercial radar remote sensing spacecraft for Capella Space.