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

As Orbital ATK engineers aim for the next launch of the company’s Antares rocket from Virginia this fall, early planning for missions to keep the International Space Station supplied through the early 2020s is already underway.

A day after aborting a rendezvous to resolve a navigation glitch, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft made a smooth final approach to the International Space Station on Thursday, floating in range of the research lab’s robot arm for capture at 5:44 a.m. EST (1044 GMT).

As NASA turns up support for future commercial lunar landers, the space agency last week canceled a mission that would have placed a rover on the moon to survey resources, such as water and helium, that could be used by future human explorers.