Photos: Spectacular start to Delta 4-Heavy’s satellite deployment mission

Tyvak, a manufacturer of small satellites, disclosed new details Monday about an experimental spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Saturday, revealing plans to validate compact optical telescopes that could offer a new way to monitor space traffic and orbital debris.

A new sunshade, or visor, designed to reduce the brightness of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband Internet satellites will debut on the company’s next launch, a measure intended to alleviate astronomers’ concerns about impacts on observations through ground-based telescopes, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday.

The U.S. Space Force says it will launch two GPS navigation satellites on reused Falcon 9 boosters next year through a restructured contract with SpaceX that saved taxpayers $52 million, the first time the military has agreed to fly operational national security payloads on previously-flown rockets.