Q&A with Opher Doron, general manager of IAI’s space division (members only)

Thirteen years after reaching Saturn, NASA’s nuclear-powered Cassini spacecraft raced through its 294th and final orbit Thursday, collecting priceless data while hurtling toward a kamikaze-like plunge into the ringed planet’s atmosphere Friday, going out in a blaze of glory to wrap up an “insanely” successful mission.

A commercial resupply freighter owned and operated by SpaceX wrapped up a two-day trip to the International Space Station on Wednesday, delivering a new docking port and two tons of other equipment to research laboratory more than 250 miles above Earth.

SpaceX’s first mission since a rocket explosion on a Florida launch pad is now scheduled for early January, when a Falcon 9 booster is set to begin a 70-satellite deployment for Iridium’s next-generation voice and data relay network, the company announced Wednesday.