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

The mission was the 134th and final orbital launch from SpaceX in 2024. Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center happened at 12:39 a.m. EST (0539 UTC) on Tuesday, Dec. 31.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket closed out a busy 2017 Cape Canaveral launch schedule on Dec. 15 with a successful liftoff on a space station resupply mission. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster, making its second launch, returned to Florida’s Space Coast for an on-target landing.

The International Space Station received two cargo shipments this week from the U.S. and Russia. A SpaceX Dragon capsule berthed with the orbiting outpost on Thursday, February 23 and a Russian Progress cargo freighter docked a day later. Watch video highlights of the arrivals.