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

In keeping with the agency’s strict medical privacy policy, NASA officials have not identified the astronaut in question or provided any details about the nature of the medical issue.

Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL rocket will take about 11 minutes to place NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite into a roughly 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) orbit after an airborne launch off Florida’s east coast.

SpaceX is preparing for the next launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, set for blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the EchoStar 23 television broadcast satellite destined to cover Brazil. The rocket’s static fire test, a major milestone in any SpaceX launch campaign, was performed Thursday.