Live coverage: Space station crew safely returns to Earth

Space station astronaut Kjell Lindgren said Tuesday he and commander Scott Kelly are big fans of Andy Weir’s book “The Martian,” adding they’re hopeful NASA will beam up a copy of the Ridley Scott movie as soon as it’s released.

A veteran cosmonaut, a German volcanologist and a Navy test pilot-turned-astronaut whose mastery of social media earned him — and NASA — a global following, bid their space station crewmates farewell and sealed the hatch of their Soyuz ferry craft, setting the stage for undocking and a fiery trip back to Earth to close out a 165-day stay aboard the International Space Station.

NASA’s RapidScat instrument mounted on a platform outside the International Space Station to track winds over the world’s oceans has ended its mission after a technical glitch disabled the sensor earlier this year, officials said Monday.