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

The last Delta 4 launcher to fly in a single-core configuration rumbled into space Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral with a GPS navigation satellite, leaving United Launch Alliance with five more Delta 4-Heavy missions on contract through late 2023 before the Delta rocket family retires from service.

The Starlink 11-10 mission was the sixth orbital launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base this year. Liftoff from pad 4E happened Monday at 6:09 p.m. PST (9:09 p.m. EST, 0209 UTC).

AsiaSat’s most powerful communications satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral in California to reach developing markets in Myanmar, Indonesia and other parts of the Asia-Pacific, rode a Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage Thursday into orbit ranging more than 22,000 miles above Earth.