Q&A with Joe Anderson of Space Logistics LLC (members only)

Marking United Launch Alliance’s first rocket flight in 2017, beginning its year of national security and science-enabling missions, the Atlas 5 rocket departs Cape Canaveral carrying the SBIRS GEO Flight 3 satellite.

After a two-day readiness review, NASA managers gave a green light Friday for SpaceX to proceed with final preparations for launch next Wednesday, May 27, of a commercial spaceship carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station on the first orbital spaceflight from U.S. soil since 2011.

The Russian manufacturer of Angola’s first communications satellite announced Friday that it has reestablished contact with the spacecraft after engineers stopped receiving signals shortly after its launch earlier this week.