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

A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 8:10 p.m. EST (0110 UTC). A second Falcon 9 is due to soar skyward from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California later tonight.

A month-and-a-half after a general strike in French Guiana halted launch preparations, an Ariane 5 rocket arrived at its launch pad Wednesday on the northeastern coast of South America, a day before hauling two communications satellites into orbit for the Brazilian government and a South Korean company.

Bulking up NASA’s constellation of tracking stations in the sky that provides critical links between orbiting spacecraft and ground control, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed a new communications hub in space today.