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

A commercial Cygnus cargo freighter packed with 3.8 tons of medical and pharmaceutical experiments, technology demonstration hardware, CubeSats and crew provisions rode an Antares rocket into orbit from Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Wednesday afternoon on the first leg of a day-and-a-half journey to the International Space Station.

Wrapping up a two-day pursuit since launching from Cape Canaveral, a SpaceX Dragon supply ship arrived at the International Space Station Monday with more than two tons of cargo and experiments. The automated cargo freighter was captured by the station’s robotic arm at 6:25 a.m. EDT (1025 GMT).

Two Falcon 9 rockets with reused first stage boosters will place the initial block of DigitalGlobe’s commercial WorldView Legion satellite fleet in orbit in 2021, the Earth-imaging company recently announced.