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

This is the launch timeline to be followed by the Atlas 5 rocket’s ascent into orbit from Cape Canaveral with the commercial Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo freighter headed to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for Tuesday at 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT).

In a head-spinning tweet, President Trump blasted NASA on Friday for its plan to return to the moon, a plan set in motion during a 2017 White House ceremony he presided over, and forcefully endorsed in March on the president’s behalf by Vice President Mike Pence, chairman of the revitalized National Space Council.

United Launch Alliance has released views from cameras mounted aboard the company’s most recent Atlas 5 rocket launch showing the rocket’s blastoff from Cape Canaveral at dawn Aug. 8 with a U.S. Air Force communications satellite.