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

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Thursday evening, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite into orbit 35 minutes later.

Russian ground crews moved a Proton rocket to its launch pad in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for liftoff with a Japanese-built broadcasting platform for Turkey’s national telecom satellite operator Friday.

Launches of interplanetary missions can only depart Earth when the positions of the planets are just right, and officials managing the development of probes set for launch in 2021 and 2022 to explore asteroids and Jupiter says construction milestones and reviews are proceeding to keep the projects on schedule despite the coronavirus pandemic.