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

NASA’s Perseverance rover will depart Cape Canaveral Thursday on a $2.7 billion mission to Mars, carrying with it the first interplanetary aircraft, sophisticated instruments to search for signs of ancient life, and drill to core samples for eventual return to Earth.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on its 15th flight just before sunset Wednesday, putting on a spectacular sky show en route to space with a NOAA satellite to measure the solar wind.

A Russian Soyuz booster places the Progress 64P autonomous cargo ship into orbit for a two-day journey to deliver 5,300 pounds of fuel, water and supplies to the International Space Station.