Space Station Live: October 7, 2015

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.

Soprano and would-be space tourist Sarah Brightman, who was in training for a flight to the International Space Station this fall aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft, will not be chasing her dream aloft after all.

The MS-25 mission was scrubbed on Thursday, but the root cause is still under investigation. The earliest that liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome can now occur is Saturday, March 23, pending the outcome of the investigation.