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

A Soyuz rocket carrying a Russian commander, a NASA co-pilot and a United Arab Emirates guest cosmonaut blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday, chased down the International Space Station and glided in for a picture-perfect docking, kicking off an unprecedented end-of-year schedule that includes up to a dozen spacewalks.

A Russian Progress supply ship packed with 3.1 tons of cargo and propellant to refuel the International Space Station is set for liftoff Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

A 29-year-old cancer survivor, now a physician’s assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, will blast off aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule later this year for a flight dedicated to raising money for the Memphis medical center. It will be the first orbital spaceflight with no professional astronauts on board.