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

Holding up a photo taken by China’s new Mars lander, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson warned Congress Wednesday that his agency faces increasingly stiff competition on the high frontier and that sustained funding for a new moon lander, infrastructure upgrades and other critical programs is vital for America’s space program.

A Proton rocket fired away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, kicking off a nearly seven-hour flight that concluded with the high-altitude delivery of a new Russian communications satellite into orbit.

With Tropical Depression Eta forecast to restrengthen into a tropical storm and move toward Florida, United Launch Alliance moved an Atlas 5 rocket off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Friday and delayed liftoff with a U.S. government spy satellite to Wednesday.