Q&A with Marc Rayman, chief engineer on NASA’s Dawn mission (members only)

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship packed with fresh food, experiments, and a new toilet for the International Space Station approached the orbiting research lab Monday, two-and-a-half days after launching from Virginia aboard an Antares rocket. Capture of Cygnus with the station’s robotic arm occurred at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT).

Elon Musk’s space transport company — chartered with a long-term goal of colonizing Mars — plans to send the first commercial mission to the red planet as soon as 2018, SpaceX announced Wednesday.

Opher Doron leads the space division at Israel Aerospace Industries, a satellite and aviation contractor that led the industrial team behind the privately-funded Beresheet lander heading to the moon.