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

Fresh off a series of three complex spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, the International Space Station’s crew is set to receive two robotic resupply freighters in the next week after launches from Florida’s Space Coast and the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Liftoff of the NROL-113 mission was at 8:20 p.m. PDT (11:20 p.m. EDT, 0320 UTC). The Falcon 9 was believed to be carrying the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.

The next chance for SpaceX to return a Falcon 9 booster to landing at Cape Canaveral will come in mid-July, when the company plans to launch a Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station, a company official said Tuesday.