Q&A with Michel Denis, ExoMars flight director

Launch managers in French Guiana have delayed liftoff of a European gravitational probe pathfinder at least one day to study out-of-bounds thermal readings from the upper stage of its Vega rocket booster, officials said Tuesday.

NASA has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch a robotic mission in July 2022 to explore Psyche, a metal-rich asteroid located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The Psyche probe is NASA’s first mission assigned to fly on SpaceX’s heavy-lift launcher.

The first node of a space-based European laser communications network will soar into orbit Friday aboard a commercial Eutelsat broadcasting spacecraft, setting the keystone for a satellite system to relay vast volumes of imagery at lightning fast speeds.