Live coverage: 400th Proton rocket takes off with Russian satellite

Working around the clock to meet a 12-day launch window in March, European engineers are putting the final touches on a Mars orbiter that could shed light on whether tiny microbes or geologic activity still linger on the barren planet.

Touching down after 340 days in orbit, astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko have returned to Earth from the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz crew capsule commanded by Sergey Volkov. Landing in Kazakhstan occurred at 0426 GMT Wednesday (11:26 p.m. EST Tuesday).

A day-and-a-half after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, a SpaceX Dragon supply ship arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday with more than 5,800 pounds of experiments, provisions and other hardware to support the orbiting lab’s six-person crew. The cargo capsule was captured by the station’s robotic arm at 6:40 a.m. EDT (1040 GMT).