Video: Liftoff of Atlas 5 with X-37B on program’s fourth flight

Running through a practice countdown and hold-down engine firing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket passed a key checkpoint Thursday ahead of liftoff next week with the U.S. Air Force’s fifth X-37B spaceplane flight, a mission that will come with several firsts.

Russian engineers have a “really, really good idea” about what went wrong during a Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Oct. 11, forcing the ship’s two-man crew to carry out an emergency abort, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday. He added that he expects the Russians to resume piloted Soyuz flights in December.

The Nusantara Lima satellite is designed to augment communications in the region alongside Indonesia’s Satria satellite, which launched in June 2023. SpaceX is targeting liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 UTC).