Q&A with Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator on NASA’s InSight mission (members only)

United Launch Alliance, the incumbent leader in U.S. rocketry, goes for its 100th flight Friday, a milestone nine years in the making after eclectic missions to Mars, the moon and Jupiter, and deployments of commercial, military and reconnaissance spacecraft.

NASA announced Wednesday the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star 39 light-years from Earth, and three of the rocky worlds may have the right conditions to support life.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft emerged from the company’s hangar at the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday for the quarter-mile trip up the ramp to historic Launch Complex 39A, ready for final testing before liftoff on the first U.S. mission to carry astronauts into orbit in nearly nine years.