Live coverage: Space station crew safely returns to Earth

Leading all other nations, U.S. launch providers flew 44 missions in 2020 that aimed to place payloads in Earth orbit or deep space, with 40 successes. China followed with 35 successful orbital missions in 39 launch attempts.

Arianespace chief executive Stephane Israel announced an anomaly occurred during Thursday’s flight of an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, shortly after the launcher’s second stage engine ignited.

Two days after lifting off from Florida’s Space Coast, a Dragon cargo capsule packed with more than 6,400 pounds of research experiments and crew supplies arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday. Astronaut Jack Fischer used the station’s robotic arm to grapple the supply ship at 6:52 a.m. EDT (1052 GMT).