Q&A with Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight Industries (members only)

Wrapping up 109 days attached to the International Space Station, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship departed the orbiting research lab Tuesday to begin an extended four-month mission for additional technology demonstrations and smallsat deployments.

The Starlink 10-26 mission will add another 28 satellites into the constellation of more than 8,000 on orbit. SpaceX executed liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:01 a.m. EDT (0901 UTC).

The 60 Starlink satellites deployed Monday by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket have traced paths across twilight skies around the world this week, but their brightness is expected to dim as the spacecraft — designed to beam broadband signals down to Earth — spread out and climb to higher altitudes.