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

Watch as a Falcon 9 rocket lights its nine Merlin first-stage engines at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the 18th launch dedicated to SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellite venture.

SpaceX’s next launch of satellites for the company’s Starlink broadband network — planned in the final days of 2019 — will carry one spacecraft with an experimental coating designed to make it less reflective in orbit, a first step in assuaging concerns from scientists who say the deployment of thousands more Starlink stations would impede some astronomical observations.

SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station to begin a one-month stay at the orbiting outpost. Dragon launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 9:29 p.m. EST (0229 UTC) for the Commercial Resupply Services 31 (CRS-31) mission.