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

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket made its third trip to a Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday, rolling into position for liftoff Friday afternoon with a classified payload for the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency.

This is the second batch of customer satellites that SpaceX will launch to a mid-inclination orbit. Liftoff from pad 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 3:34 a.m. PST (6:34 a.m. EST, 1134 UTC).

In this week’s edition of News from the Press Site, Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Rachel Jewett, Senior Managing Editor for Via Satellite, and Joey Roulette, U.S. Business of Space Correspondent for Reuters.