Q&A with Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin’s Orion program manager

The 15th resupply mission to the International Space Station by a Cygnus cargo freighter lifted off at 12:36 p.m. EST (1736 GMT) Saturday aboard an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. The Northrop Grumman-owned spacecraft is carrying more than 8,000 pounds of experiments and provisions for the space station and its seven-person crew. Capture by the station’s robotic arm occurred at 4:38 a.m. EST (0938 GMT) Monday.

NASA has submitted a draft agreement for government approval that would allow Russian cosmonauts to begin flying to the International Space Station on U.S. crew capsules next year in a no-funds exchanged arrangement with Russia’s space agency. In return, Russia will continue launching U.S. and international astronauts on Soyuz missions.

Plans to launch a Navy communications satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket early Monday could be interrupted by Tropical Storm Erika, expected to strengthen into a hurricane, as the cyclone puts its sights on Florida.