Q&A with Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator on NASA’s Dawn mission

A commercial Cygnus freighter made a science-enabling delivery to the International Space Station today, bringing about 7,500 pounds of cargo to the outpost under NASA’s privatized logistics shipment program.

The Orbital ATK’s Cygnus commercial resupply spacecraft, named the SS Deke Slayton II, is packed up and poised for launch to the International Space Station.

NASA officials released a nearly five-year, $28 billion plan Monday to return astronauts to the surface of the moon before the end of 2024, but the agency’s administrator said the “aggressive” timeline set by the Trump administration last year hinges on Congress approving $3.2 billion in the next few months to kick-start development of new human-rated lunar landers.