Q&A with Keith Gendreau, principal investigator of the first X-ray space communications experiment (members only)

A refrigerator-sized satellite soared into orbit aboard an air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket Thursday night over the Atlantic Ocean, finally setting off on a $252 million mission to probe the dynamic boundary region where space and Earth’s atmosphere meet.

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).

Watch a replay of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad Friday, as seen from the Kennedy Space Center press site five miles away.