Live coverage: Space station crew safely returns to Earth

The spacecraft will journey back to Earth without the two astronauts it launched with back on June 5. Undocking is set for 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 UTC) with landing just after midnight on Saturday.

Europe’s first mission to Mercury, a quartet of Galileo navigation spacecraft, the world’s first global winds observatory, and a new European weather satellite have arrived at an equatorial launch base in French Guiana in preparation for launches in the coming months.

Two NASA astronauts and an Italian flight engineer are sheltering in the space station’s Russian segment as mission control analyzes a possible leak of toxic ammonia coolant aboard the complex.