Video: TDRS-M takes flight atop Atlas 5

A broadband communications satellite for Paris-based Eutelsat — built on a new Thales Alenia Space all-electric design with xenon plasma thrusters — and an Indian broadcasting spacecraft are fastened to the top of an Ariane 5 launcher for liftoff Thursday from French Guiana.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft emerged from the company’s hangar at the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday for the quarter-mile trip up the ramp to historic Launch Complex 39A, ready for final testing before liftoff on the first U.S. mission to carry astronauts into orbit in nearly nine years.

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken undocked from the International Space Station Saturday aboard a Crew Dragon capsule, heading for a parachute-assisted splashdown Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico to wrap up a 64-day test flight of SpaceX’s commercial human-rated spaceship.