Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

In this time-lapse video, the Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon atop rolls to launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the first time on January 3. The rocket was then lifted vertical for a series of fit checks and tests.

A novel communications experiment developed by NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory has arrived at the International Space Station to prove data can be transmitted in space using X-ray signals, a breakthrough that could have uses in deep space exploration and military technology on Earth.

The launch of a NASA research satellite built to probe conditions along the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space has been tentatively rescheduled for no earlier than Wednesday, pending the conclusion of a review of unexpected data signatures discovered on the first stage of the mission’s air-launched Pegasus XL rocket.