Live coverage: Japanese cargo craft arrives at space station

A space-based weather monitor, equipped with upgraded instruments for more detailed and timely data on tropical cyclones and thunderstorms, is scheduled for launch Tuesday on top of Japan’s 25th H-2A rocket.

Sierra Nevada Corp. has business activity across a spectrum of programs, from Orbcomm communications satellites to parts on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, but all eyes are now on the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft. Sierra Nevada’s Mark Sirangelo met with reporters at the 2015 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight.

NASA officials say the International Space Station’s logistics chain was designed to absorb a launch failure like the mishap that destroyed an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo craft in October, but pressure is on SpaceX to deliver supplies on time this year.