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

A hydrogen-fueled main engine and four solid rocket boosters combined to propel a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on March 15, successfully sending a U.S. Air Force communications satellite into orbit.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 197 feet tall and and weighing 1.2 million pounds, unleashes 2.4 million pounds of thrust from its main engine and four solid-fuel boosters at 6:42 p.m. EST (2342 GMT) Saturday to launch the GOES-R weather observer for NASA and NOAA from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched shortly after midnight Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with Hispasat 30W-6, a communications satellite heading for a position more than 22,000 miles over the equator to serve markets in Europe, North Africa and the Americas.