Video: Expedition 49 crew launches to the International Space Station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed away from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, and its first stage booster returned to a drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean after sending a heavyweight commercial communications satellite toward orbit for Telesat.

India is set to resume satellite launches as soon as early November with a mission to deliver Indian, U.S., and European payloads to orbit, the country’s first space launch in nearly a year after delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The chief executive of Axiom Space says agreements with NASA, SpaceX, and fare-paying passengers should be finalized in the coming weeks for the launch of the first all-private crew to the International Space Station in October 2021, and former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is set to command the mission.