Navy Vice Adm. James Syring.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s first commercially hosted payload is now expected to launch in mid-2017, nine months later than the date officials used when they discussed the program in March 2015.

This post is only available to members.

Mike Gruss is the chief content and strategy officer at SpaceNews. From 2013 to 2016 he was a senior reporter at SpaceNews covering military space. Previously, he was editor in chief of Sightline Media Group and worked as a reporter and columnist for...