Video: Change of command aboard International Space Station

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says he is “fairly confident” that astronauts can fly to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship at the end of May or early June, pending final parachute tests, data reviews and a training schedule that can escape major impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.

With lingering uncertainty about when new U.S. commercial vehicles can regularly carry crews to the space station, NASA said Tuesday it will pay the Russian space agency more than $90 million for a round-trip ticket to the International Space Station on a Soyuz spacecraft later this year.

Live coverage from NASA Television for the launch of a Russian Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station. Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 0709 GMT (3:09 a.m. EDT).