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

Watch a Falcon 9 rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral on December 8, 2010, at 10:43 a.m. EST (1543 GMT) on the COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) Demo Flight 1. It was the first test flight of the Dragon cargo ship.

United Launch Alliance plans to assemble leftover parts for a Delta 2 rocket display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida alongside other icons of U.S. rocketry, the company announced Saturday soon after the final Delta 2 launch.

United Launch Alliance technicians positioned the first stage for the next Atlas 5 rocket on a mobile launch platform Friday at Cape Canaveral, a key step in preparations for an October mission that will debut a new solid-fueled booster design.