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

Follow the key events of the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent to orbit with three Earth observation satellites for Canada’s Radarsat Constellation Mission.

NASA officials released a nearly five-year, $28 billion plan Monday to return astronauts to the surface of the moon before the end of 2024, but the agency’s administrator said the “aggressive” timeline set by the Trump administration last year hinges on Congress approving $3.2 billion in the next few months to kick-start development of new human-rated lunar landers.

SpaceX is readying two Falcon 9 rockets for a pair of flights nine hours apart Sunday from separate pads along Florida’s Space Coast. Weather permitting, the back-to-back departures Sunday would mark shortest span between two orbital-class launches from Cape Canaveral since 1966.