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

An Ariane 5 rocket lifted two communications satellites to space Wednesday to connect rural Australians with the rest of the world through high-speed Internet and extend television and data services over India, then completed experiments in orbit aimed at helping designers craft Europe’s next-generation launcher.

NASA has partially restored the Hubble Space Telescope to science mode after a software error temporarily halted observations, but engineers continue studying a problem that kept the telescope’s aperture door from closing and a separate concern with Hubble’s main camera.

The mission was SpaceX’s third orbital launch of the year and 99th in total from Launch Complex 39. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-11 mission occurred at 10:27 a.m. EST (1527 UTC).