The Missile Defense Agency and Boeing installed the ninth Ground Based Midcourse Defense program interceptor in its underground silo at Ft. Greeley, Alaska, on Sept. 18. That makes seven for Alaska and two at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Now, if they could just finish the tests.
NASA, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance are all preparing to launch their next-gen rockets from Florida’s Space Coast, two of them before the year is out. One is expected to liberate the U.S. launch enterprise from its reliance on Russian-made RD-180 engines, while all three rockets could eventually carry astronaut crews.