Q&A with George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic

Dante Lauretta, a researcher based at the University of Arizona, leads the science team on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission scheduled for launch Sept. 8 on a round-trip journey to asteroid Bennu.

Virgin Orbit is setting modest expectations ahead of the company’s first attempt to reach orbit with a liquid-fueled air-launched rocket, emphasizing a hunger for flight data on the test launch, which could occur as soon as Monday off the coast of Southern California.

Giulio Ranzo is the chief executive of Avio, the Italian company responsible for building the Vega rocket. Ranzo recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the Vega rocket’s increasing launch rate, the debut of the new Vega C booster in 2020, and future plans to evolve the Vega design to compete with commercial microsatellite launchers.