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

The launch comes following a scrub for weather of the NG-21 mission at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff of the Starlink 11-1 mission happened at 12:24 a.m. PDT (3:24 a.m. EDT, 0724 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E).

Running more than six weeks late after social unrest in French Guiana forced the closure of Europe’s launch base there, a commercial Ariane 5 rocket took off Thursday just after sunset with a pair of communications satellites manufactured in France for owners in Brazil and South Korea.

Two veteran spacemen embarking on a marathon yearlong mission in orbit must first sprint through a busy workday Friday — suiting up for liftoff, climbing into their Soyuz spaceship, then flying to the International Space Station.