CAS Space conducts first suborbital launch and capsule landing test Chinese commercial firm CAS Space launched its first Lihong-1 suborbital flight and recovery test mission, seeing a successful parachute descent of the capsule.

Four astronauts returned to Earth early Thursday morning after leaving the International Space Station a month early because of a medical issue.

Skywatchers across the Bay Area will have a rare early-morning opportunity Thursday as a NASA SpaceX Dragon spacecraft makes its final pass over California before returning to Earth.

A SpaceX ship recovered the spacecraft from the ocean and at around 1:30 a.m. and welcomed aboard NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, plus Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.