Watch our interview with two International Space Station astronauts

United Launch Alliance could load cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellants into a Vulcan rocket test article at Cape Canaveral for the first time in the coming weeks, timing key tests for the next-generation rocket in between flights of Atlas 5 rockets that will share the same launch complex for the next few years.

Stratolaunch said Friday that the company has “transitioned ownership” a year after the death of Paul Allen, the company’s billionaire founder who funded the construction of the world’s largest airplane for an airborne satellite launcher.

NASA says it is interested in flying astronauts and scientists on commercial suborbital vehicles, like those being tested by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, to provide additional training and research opportunities augmenting missions to the orbiting International Space Station.