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

Closing out a 27-hour pursuit after a predawn launch from Florida’s Space Coast, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule glided to an automated docking early Sunday at the International Space Station, accomplishing one of the ship’s key test objectives before astronauts take a ride later this year.

An antenna-covered communications spacecraft that will bring more bandwidth and capacity to the U.S. military’s global information grid than any single satellite ever before was successfully launched Wednesday atop a Delta 4 rocket.

The launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket occurred less than three hours after the planned Falcon Heavy launch. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-36 mission happened at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC).