Q&A with George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic

Spaceflight Now’s Stephen Clark spoke with Rolf de Groot, head of ESA’s robotic exploration coordination office, on Sept. 25, discussing the two-month launch delay of Europe’s ExoMars orbiter and landing demonstrator set to depart for Mars in 2016 and the status of an ambitious rover mission in 2018.

Arianespace chief executive Stéphane Israël discussed his company’s outlook with Spaceflight Now, touching on the light-class Vega rocket’s business prospects, the launch manifest in 2016, Arianespace’s view of innovation in the launch market, and his plans to compete in the next decade.

Virgin Galactic’s second piloted suborbital spaceship made its first rocket-powered test flight Thursday, three-and-a-half years after the loss of an earlier model in an accident that killed one test pilot and injured another.