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

Twenty-eight thousand students across the United States submitted essays and proposed names for NASA’s newest Mars rover and on Thursday, the agency announced the winner: Perseverance, submitted by Virginia seventh-grader Alexander Mather.

United Launch Alliance has released views from cameras mounted aboard the company’s most recent Atlas 5 rocket launch showing the rocket’s blastoff from Cape Canaveral at dawn Aug. 8 with a U.S. Air Force communications satellite.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Falcon 9 rocket’s debut flight, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral with a reused first stage Wednesday, then landed the previously-flown booster for a record fifth time after sending 60 more Starlink Internet satellites into space.