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

The launch of the first batch of new-generation Iridium communications satellites Saturday marked the beginning of the end for the predictable, spectacular flares of reflected sunlight produced by the old-design craft, a favorite of amateur skywatchers for nearly two decades.

United Launch Alliance vows a “seamless” switch from the Atlas 5 to the new Vulcan rocket in launches of Boeing’s astronaut taxis.

Watch this replay of Monday’s liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, followed by touchdown of the booster’s first stage on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.