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

SpaceX broke another re-flight record on Friday evening with the launch of 23 more Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 booster making its 18th flight. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 8:37 p.m. EDT (0037 UTC on Nov. 4).

SpaceX test-fired its next Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Saturday in preparation for the company’s 17th launch of the year, a mission tentatively set for liftoff Wednesday with a secretive payload named Zuma for the U.S. government.

The mission also broke SpaceX’s record number of orbital launches achieved in 2023. Liftoff happened at 2:10 a.m. EDT (0610 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.