Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

Nearly halfway through its primary mission, South Korea’s first spacecraft to explore the moon has been collecting data and snapping pictures of lunar landscapes and craters since maneuvering into orbit late last year.

Japanese space agency officials said Tuesday they found a “large number” of pitch black rock and dust particles after opening a capsule returned to Earth earlier this month by the Hayabusa 2 mission, giving eager scientists their first significant specimens ever brought back from an asteroid.

An Ariane 5 rocket took off on a rare morning launch Thursday with four Galileo navigation satellites, the heavy-lifter’s first flight in support of the European positioning and timing fleet. Liftoff from French Guiana occurred at 1306 GMT (8:06 a.m. EST).