Q&A with Tory Bruno, ULA’s chief executive

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.

Space missions dispatched into the solar system often have journeys lasting years before reaching a scientific payoff, but NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched last weekend on a speedy departure from planet Earth is already getting ready to sweep closer to the sun than any spacecraft in history during a flyby later this year.

The 375th Delta rocket doubled the size of the Air Force’s “neighborhood watch” program today with the successful launch and deployment of two surveillance satellites into the vast geosynchronous belt of spacecraft around the planet.