Q&A with Steve Skladanek, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services

A new weather observatory that will track storms across the globe as it orbits from pole to pole has been trucked to its launch site in California for a long-awaited ascent into space this November.

Tory Bruno has held the top post at United Launch Alliance for a little more than a year, and it has been anything but business as usual for the top U.S. launch provider. He recently spoke with reporters at ULA’s Cape Canaveral launch control center.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad Sunday night with the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission, a project developed in partnership with NASA. Launch occurred right on time at the opening of a two-hour window at 11:03 p.m. EST Sunday (0403 GMT Monday).