Falcon 9 abort seen from press site

Ax-4 will mark the first time an astronaut from India or Poland visits the International Space Station. The mission will be commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, making her second trip to the ISS on behalf of Axiom Space.

In one of its final preflight tests, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited at pad 39A in Florida for several seconds Thursday, ramping up to full throttle in an end-to-end checkout of the booster before liftoff next week on a space station resupply flight.

Passing a major pre-flight milestone ahead of a launch and landing planned early Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited its main engines Wednesday for a hold-down firing at Cape Canaveral.