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

SpaceX launched 57 Starlink broadband satellites and a pair of Earth observation smallsats for BlackSky on top of a Falcon 9 rocket at 1:12 a.m. EDT (0512 GMT) Friday. The 90th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket took off from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

China added a fourth craft Tuesday to a network of geostationary data relay satellites tasked with keeping mission control in steady contact with Shenzhou crew capsules and a planned space station.

SpaceX’s rideshare program has launched more 1,000 smallsats for more than 130 customers. Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 11:56 a.m. PDT (2:56 p.m. EDT, 1856 UTC).