Q&A with Mike Laidley, vice president of Orbital ATK’s Next Generation Launch program (members only)

Three of Planet’s commercial SkySat Earth-imaging spacecraft will ride to space on top of a stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites next month aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, and three more will hitch a ride on another SpaceX mission later this summer.

NASA has selected Maxar Technologies for a $375 million contract to design, build and launch the core element of a mini-space station in orbit around the moon that will double as a deep space research outpost and a staging point for future human expeditions to the lunar surface.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared into orbit Monday from Cape Canaveral with nearly three tons of hardware and supplies for the International Space Station.