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

The Ariane 5 rocket’s fifth flight of the year launched at 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT) with the Sky Muster and Arsat 2 communications satellites, designed to deliver broadband Internet to far-flung Australian citizens and broadcast television and networking services to Argentina and nearby countries.

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket will deliver a Cygnus supply ship into orbit Saturday to begin a pursuit of the International Space Station.

SpaceX technicians at Cape Canaveral are readying for the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket configuration next week, a mission that will debut changes to make the launcher safer for astronauts and make it easier — and less expensive — for the company to reuse first stage boosters.