The full-length version of AW&ST's August 2014 interview with Iridium CEO Matthew Desch and Aireon President and CEO Donald Thoma is below, with web-only excerpts highlighted in green.

In September 1999, the National Reconnaissance Office dumped its incumbent imagery satellite contractor, Lockheed Martin, in favor of a bolder and less costly proposal led by Boeing.

"Imagine we land humans on Mars and we have five to 10 robots we can send out to areas of interest for our researchers to look at," said Randy Bresnik, NEEMO 19's commander.

Astronaut Steve Nagel has died after a battle with cancer. We'll never forget his 1991 space shuttle landing. It was bad but could have been worse.

Though not as visible as work on the flight elements, upgrades to NASA’s Mission Control at Johnson Space Center here have been underway since the shuttle program’s retirement in 2011. The Mission Control Center for the 21st Century project is intended to set the stage for a U.S. human spaceflight comeback.

U. S. orchestrated spacewalks, previously set for Aug. 21 and 29, will be rescheduled for later this year.