Q&A with Claire Leon, director of launch enterprise directorate at SMC

While recovery teams continue combing through the test site at Cape Canaveral where SpaceX’s first space-worthy Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed in an explosive accident last month, engineers a few miles away are pressing ahead with the company’s 17th resupply mission to the International Space Station set for launch early Friday.

A problem with a U.S. Air Force tracking radar kept a Falcon 9 rocket crowned with a NOAA space weather observatory grounded Sunday, forcing a long-delayed mission to stay on Earth an extra day.

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket went through a practice countdown and fueling exercise this week to prepare for its Aug. 19 liftoff to deliver a pair of orbital surveillance satellites into space.