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Imagery from the Cold War’s Corona satellites is helping scientists fill in how we have changed our planet in the past half century.

The F.C.C. approved the company’s 3,236-satellite constellation, which aims to provide high-speed internet service around the world.

Researchers enlisted quantum physics to send a “secret key” for encrypting and decrypting messages between two stations 700 miles apart.

The company, founded by Richard Branson, had hoped to show that it can send small satellites to orbit from virtually anywhere.

Some astronomers who have criticized the company’s orbital internet constellation were encouraged by the measures it announced.

Two satellites docked together high above Earth on Tuesday, successfully extending the life of one that was running out of fuel.

Like SpaceX, the company aims to build a constellation of internet satellites, but its orbiters could interfere with telescopes on Earth.

Various companies are pressing ahead with plans for internet service from space, which has prompted astronomers to voice concerns about the impact on research from telescopes on Earth.

The European Union sees the service as a way to end the bloc’s reliance on GPS, which the American military controls.

The powerful rocket is carrying an assortment of cargo, including a solar sail, an atomic clock and the ashes of 152 people.