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

A package of five satellites, including an Italian radar reconnaissance craft and a European Space Agency exoplanet science probe, soared into orbit Wednesday from French Guiana aboard a Russian-made Soyuz rocket.

The mission will be the 14th time that a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carries humans to the International Space Station. The mission launched on Friday, March 14, at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 UTC).

United Launch Alliance is set to retire part of its rocket family Thursday with the final flight of the Delta 4 rocket’s “single stick” configuration, a mission set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral carrying a new GPS navigation satellite into orbit for the U.S. Air Force.