Q&A with Kurt Eberly, Orbital ATK’s Antares deputy program manager

A 78-foot-tall Minotaur 4 rocket is poised for liftoff Wednesday from Virginia’s Eastern Shore carrying four top secret payloads into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Air Force meteorologists on this Good Friday have released their initial forecast for Tuesday’s launch of a cargo ship to the International Space Station, predicting favorable conditions to fly the Atlas 5 booster on a commercial mission.

SpaceX’s launch director halted a countdown Tuesday to replace a sensor on the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket set to blast off with the GovSat 1 communications craft, the product of a joint venture between the commercial satellite operator SES and the government of Luxembourg.