Q&A with Keith Gendreau, principal investigator of the first X-ray space communications experiment (members only)

Orbital ATK shipped the final major piece of hardware for the next Cygnus space station resupply mission to a launch base on Virginia’s Eastern Shore last week as technicians began loading cargo destined for delivery to the orbiting research lab.

SpaceX is set to resume launches from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral in December with the liftoff of a space station-bound supply ship on top of a Falcon 9 booster, a major step in boosting the company’s flight rate and readying for the debut of the long-delayed Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Starlink 15-11 mission added another 27 broadband internet satellites to the low Earth orbit megaconstellation. Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 3:40 a.m. PST (6:40 a.m. EST / 1140 UTC).