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

Look back on last week’s launch of a Russian Proton rocket from Kazakhstan with the EchoStar 21 communications satellite, a commercial craft designed to beam broadband connectivity to customers across Europe.

Plans to launch a Navy communications satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket early Monday have been interrupted by Tropical Storm Erika, an unpredictable cyclone with its sights on Florida.

SpaceX performed a dramatic high-altitude test flight Sunday of the company’s Crew Dragon capsule over Florida’s Space Coast, testing the human-rated ship’s ability to escape a rocket failure and save its crew before two NASA astronauts strap in for a flight to the International Space Station as soon as this spring.