Video: Atlas/Cygnus pre-launch news conference

NASA’s four Magnetospheric Multiscale mission spacecraft were encapsulated Feb. 23 in the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket’s nose cone at the commercial Astrotech processing campus in Titusville. Delivery of the payload to the Atlas 5 assembly building for mating occurred on Friday, Feb. 27.

NASA’s RapidScat instrument mounted on a platform outside the International Space Station to track winds over the world’s oceans has ended its mission after a technical glitch disabled the sensor earlier this year, officials said Monday.

Mostly clear skies and brisk westerly winds are forecast at launch time Friday afternoon for SpaceX’s first resupply mission to the International Space Station in nearly a year.