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

The latest prototype of SpaceX’s  Starship launch vehicle — Starship SN10 — took off from the company’s South Texas test site and flew to an altitude of more than 30,000 feet Wednesday, then descended to a controlled vertical landing after two previous test vehicles crashed at touchdown. Minutes later, the 16-story test rocket exploded in a fireball, but the test flight appeared to be a major step forward in the early stages of the Starship program.

The SXM-10 satellite launch comes six months after the SXM-9 satellite was launched from Florida. SpaceX is targeting liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday, June 7 at 12:54 a.m. EDT (0454 UTC).

A European Ariane 5 rocket will propel two communications satellites from a standstill to a speed of nearly 21,000 mph in 25 minutes during a launch Friday from French Guiana.