Q&A with Alvaro Gimenez, ESA’s director of science

With plans to put 11 new-generation communications satellite on SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch, Orbcomm has moved first in line on the launch company’s manifest after a failure in June. Orbcomm’s CEO, Marc Eisenberg, spoke with Spaceflight Now’s Stephen Clark after announcing his firm’s launch plans.

In nearly five years on the job as Boeing’s Space Launch System program manager, John Shannon has presided over the completion of the first SLS core stage inside a cavernous factory in New Orleans.

Scientists from the United Arab Emirates have announced the Arab world’s first Mars probe will launch in July 2020 and collect global measurements of the Martian atmosphere.