Videos: Previewing SpaceX’s eighth International Space Station resupply launch

A Russian Progress freighter loaded with nearly three tons of supplies, water and fuel lifted off on top of a Soyuz rocket Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a two-day trek to the International Space Station, clearing the way for the next Soyuz launch Dec. 3 with the next station-bound crew.

A communications payload owned by the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES will ride the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket in mid-2015, SES officials said Friday.

Three new space station residents blasted off Wednesday on a fast-track six-hour pursuit of the orbiting research complex, kicking off five months in space. The U.S.-Russian-Japanese space crew lifted off at 2102 GMT (5:02 p.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and docking occurred 0245 GMT (10:45 p.m. EDT).