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

Orbital Sciences Corp. has selected a new first stage propulsion system for its Antares rocket that will offer improved performance for launches beginning in 2017, the company’s chief executive said.

A U.S. military satellite awaiting launch Friday night from Cape Canaveral is small enough to fit on a coffee table, but it will punch above its weight, scanning a region more than 20,000 miles above Earth to catalog spacecraft movements and space junk.

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship carrying more than 7,200 pounds of provisions and experiments approached the International Space Station two days after its launch from Virginia, moving close enough for capture by the station’s robotic arm at 5:28 a.m. EST (1028 GMT) Monday.