Q&A with Mark Mulqueen, Boeing’s space station program manager

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the JCSAT 18/Kacific 1 communications satellite into orbit around 33 minutes later.

European Space Agency member states on Thursday committed nearly 12.5 billion euros ($13.8 billion) to fund ESA programs over the next three years, promising money to grow Europe’s fleet of satellites studying Earth’s changing climate, contribute to NASA-led lunar exploration efforts, and continue ESA’s participation in the International Space Station until 2030.

Six days after SpaceX fired its last Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, another launcher rolled to historic pad 39A and ignited its nine Merlin 1D engines at sunset Thursday in preparation for a commercial satellite delivery mission Sunday for Intelsat.