Live coverage: Mission control loses contact with Indian moon lander

The three U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station said Monday they’re ready to sign up for a trip to the moon if NASA can meet the Trump administration’s newly stated goal of returning Americans to the lunar surface within the next five years.

A European environmental satellite launched Tuesday from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome to begin a mission of at least seven years measuring the height, color and temperature of the world’s oceans. The Sentinel 3A spacecraft lifted off aboard a Rockot booster at 1757 GMT (12:57 p.m. EST).

Using the sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have managed to detect a vast plume of water vapor spewing from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, a jet extending nearly 6,000 miles and feeding a previously detected torus circling the entire planet.