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

NASA has announced the nine finalists for the name of the space agency’s next Mars rover — scheduled for launch in July — and invited the public to vote on the candidates before making a final selection in the coming months.

The last flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Medium rocket lifted off Aug. 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, riding more than 1.2 million pounds of thrust from a hydrogen-fueled main engine and two strap-on solid rocket motors.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink satellites, delayed by upper level winds and held up for the Falcon Heavy launch of NASA’s Psyche, is scheduled to liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 UTC) on Friday night.