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

Carrying a Cygnus supply ship bound for the International Space Station, an Orbital ATK Antares rocket lifted off Monday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia.

Topped with Australian and Indian communications satellites, an Ariane 5 rocket successfully flew into orbit from the jungle of French Guiana on Wednesday. Liftoff occurred at 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT).

NASA simulated an in-flight launch abort of an Orion crew capsule high above Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, in a major test of the safety system that would whisk astronauts on future moon missions away from a failing rocket.