Anticipation is growing this week for the next launch from Cape Canaveral, which is now set to fly Saturday morning at 4:55 a.m. EDT. On deck: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon spacecraft on top. Dragon is destined for a rendezvous with the International Space Station. If all goes well with flight tests, station crewmembers will reach out with a robot arm, grab hold of Dragon and berth it to the orbiting outpost. This is a big deal launch for the commercial space industry. Read more, and learn my thoughts on the subject, by clicking on the Orbital Inclinations link at left -- then check out the entry entitles "SpaceX poised to make history. If all goes well."

Also keep an eye on the space news available from the folks featured on my Recommended Links page as a Soyuz rocket is scheduled to blast off tonight (Monday) with three new crewmembers heading for a planned six-month stay onboard the space station.

Jim Banke

I never got to see this in person despite two trips to Russia, but this is one of my favorite scenes that is repeated everytime there's going to be a Soyuz launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Here in this NASA image is the Soyuz that is scheduled to launch Monday night with three people aboard, including NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, the first educator astronaut to serve as an Expedition crewmember. You gotta love all those rocket engines clustered together.