Live coverage: Three Chinese astronauts return to Earth

An unpiloted demonstration flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule ended prematurely Sunday with a smooth airbag-cushioned predawn landing in New Mexico after a timing glitch prevented it from docking with the International Space Station, leaving some test objectives incomplete as NASA begins analyzing data to determine if astronauts should fly on the next Starliner mission.

China placed is first spacecraft into orbit around Mars on Wednesday, continuing an international blitz on the Red Planet one day after the arrival of a spacecraft from United Arab Emirates and eight days before the landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover.

Struggling with balky electrical connectors, spacewalker Mike Hopkins managed to plug in and secure three of four thick power and data cables Saturday that are needed by a European experiment platform, leaving one cable for additional troubleshooting.