Video: Groundbreaking for commercial crew access tower

Axiom Space, a Houston-based company with plans to develop a commercial outpost in space, announced Thursday it has signed a contract with SpaceX to ferry a professional astronaut and three paying passengers to the International Space Station as soon as next year on the first fully private human spaceflight mission to Earth orbit.

Signaling strength in the international cooperation between the U.S. military and allied nations, a satellite funded by five countries will be launched by the Air Force on Saturday to codify a global communications deal.

Commercial ziplines have been installed and tested at United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket pad as the emergency escape system if astronauts and ground personnel need to evacuate the Crew Access Tower.