Live coverage: Chinese sample return spacecraft completes docking in lunar orbit

In a blend of interesting circumstances and happenstance, two private companies and Japan’s space agency are all poised to land on the Moon in the back half of January 2024.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket climbed into space Sunday with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on a daring mission to explore the atmosphere of the sun. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral occurred at 3:31 a.m. EDT (0731 GMT).

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket stands on pad 0A at Wallops Island, Virginia, on a frigid morning hours before a planned liftoff with more than 8,000 pounds of cargo heading for the International Space Station.