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

This video replay shot from South Padre Island shows SpaceX’s Starship SN8 prototype rocket taking off from Boca Chica, Texas, climbing high into the atmosphere, then gliding back to a fiery crash landing after an otherwise successful test flight.

SpaceX moved closer to its next launch with a successful hold-down engine firing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sailing through a readiness check for a planned liftoff Wednesday with a clandestine U.S. government payload named Zuma.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Merah Putih communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later.