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

SpaceX founder Elon Musk detailed progress on the company’s next-generation Starship program Monday, saying the huge rocket could “probably” attempt its first launch into Earth orbit next year, and adding that the Starship will fly hundreds of missions before SpaceX puts people on-board.

The 200th Atlas-Centaur rocket, history some 52 years in the making, will blast off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral to deliver a U.S. Navy mobile communications satellite into orbit.

Russia’s Proton rocket returned to flight Friday with the successful deployment of a powerful new communications satellite for Inmarsat of London in the workhorse rocket’s first flight since a launch failure in May.