Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

SpaceX’s 34th mission as part of the Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract with NASA will deliver 6,500 pounds of science and supplies to the International Space Station. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for Friday, May 15, at 6:05 p.m. EDT (2205 UTC).

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft today moved a step closer to starting a voyage to explore an uncharted world in our solar system — the mountain-sized Asteroid Bennu — by joining the booster rocket that will propel it from Earth next week.

NASA is aiming to make a determination about the path forward for Mars Sample Return by the end of March 2024.