Q&A with Heino Falcke, principal investigator of the Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (members only)

A package of small satellites that will likely track global naval activity lifted off aboard a Chinese Long March 4C rocket.

China’s Long March 5 rocket — the country’s most powerful launcher — is set for its third flight Friday on a critical validation mission after a core stage engine failure doomed a launch in 2017 and forced a two-and-a-half-year investigation and redesign effort.

China is gearing up to launch two astronauts on a month-long expedition to the country’s new orbiting space lab module Sunday.