Q&A with Giulio Ranzo, CEO of Avio (members only)

A European Ariane 5 rocket fired into a clear blue sky over French Guiana on Wednesday, delivering to space a powerhouse satellite for Australia’s government-backed $1.2 billion nationwide universal broadband network and Argentina’s second communications satellite.

SpaceX is preparing to launch another batch of satellites for the Starlink Internet network from Florida’s Space Coast as soon as April 16, a sign that launch operations at Cape Canaveral could continue at a reduced pace amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

If all goes according to plan, engineers in southern Mississippi later this month will load cryogenic propellants into the core stage of a rocket NASA says will launch astronauts back to the moon, exposing its tankage and internal plumbing to extreme operating conditions hundreds of degrees below zero for the first time. The fueling test — a major milestone in its own right — is a precursor to a high-stakes eight-minute test-firing of the Space Launch System’s four shuttle-era main engines planned as soon as November.