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

A series of aviation and marine warnings suggest the launch could be as soon as Tuesday, May 27, following the Memorial Day holiday, which was confirmed by SpaceX on Friday.

A Soyuz FG rocket thundered to life and shot into orbit smoothly Monday carrying three crew members on a six-hour flight to the International Space Station. The problem-free ascent came less than two months after an Oct. 11 launch abort that forced a different crew to carry out safe-but-scary emergency landing.

SpaceX intends to cut the price of a Falcon 9 rocket launch by up to 30 percent when flying with reused first stage boosters, an achievement the company still hopes to demonstrate before the end of the year, SpaceX’s president said recently.