Q&A with Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO

SpaceX conducted the first hold-down firing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket Friday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for launch next week with Bangladesh’s first communications satellite.

Catching observers off guard, President Trump, in remarks before a National Space Council Meeting at the White House Monday, officially directed to Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the military, a “space force,” to ensure American dominance on the high frontier.

An upgraded Soyuz ferry ship, the second in a new series featuring improved avionics, navigation and other systems, glided to a flawless docking with the International Space Station early Friday, bringing three fresh crew members to the outpost and briefly boosting the lab’s crew back to six.