CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX’s Crew-11 astronaut mission to the Worldwide Area Station for NASA is go for launch.
When Crew-11 launches, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will raise off from historic Launch Advanced 39A right here at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart (KSC), sending a crew of 4 the ISS for a six-month keep. Mission managers with NASA and SpaceX all polled ‘go’ to proceed to rely down in the direction of a 12:09 p.m. ET (1609 GMT) launch try of the Crew-11 mission on Thursday (July 31).
“I am so desperate to see this mission launch, however as at all times, we launch once we’re prepared. With slightly luck, we’ll see a launch quickly, and we’ll additionally see a crew come residence quickly,” stated Ken Bowersox, affiliate administrator for NASA’s Area Operations Mission Directorate, throughout a prelaunch briefing at KSC right now (July 30). “However be affected person with us. Let’s make it possible for the automobile is able to go and that our crew is absolutely sure earlier than we hit the button.”
The 4 Crew-11 astronauts will dock with the ISS some 39 hours after launch. They are going to be flying inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft, flying on its milestone sixth flight. No different Crew Dragon has flown greater than 4 instances.
Steve Stich, supervisor of NASA’s Industrial Crew Program, hailed the milestone in right now’s briefing. “As you understand, this can be a actually essential mission for us. It is our sixth flight of Dragon Endeavour. We labored very arduous with SpaceX to finish all of the reuse actions for this automobile,” Stich stated. “We had licensed the automobiles — the Dragons — for under 5 flights. Now we have accomplished all that work and we’re actually able to go.”
Crew-11 consists of NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, who will function commander on her first journey to area. In a press briefing earlier this month, Cardman pressured how six-month stays on the ISS just like the one she’s going to embark on will assist put together NASA to ship astronauts a lot farther into area.
“Understanding learn how to dwell and work for lengthy durations — going and staying — is a very attention-grabbing problem, and I am grateful that we have gotten the possibility to do that — to hone our abilities on the ISS, in order that we are able to do that for longer durations on the moon,” Cardman stated.
“The Worldwide Area Station, in my perspective, is a fully essential stepping stone as we take into consideration going farther afield.”
Becoming a member of Cardman as mission pilot is veteran NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, making his fourth journey into area. Fincke beforehand educated to pilot Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft on its first operational mission, however was reassigned as delays and points proceed to plague the Starliner program.
Launching tomorrow: L-1. Area has been calling my identify ever since I returned from my final mission in 2011. Our crew is prepared. Let’s do that! Go Falcon, Go Dragon, Go Crew-11! pic.twitter.com/f91BPiZ6LtJuly 30, 2025
Alongside the 2 NASA astronauts are Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA), making his second journey to the ISS whereas serving as Crew-11 mission specialist, and Oleg Platonov of Russia’s area company Roscosmos, mission specialist, making his first journey to area.
皆さん、こんにちは！打上げが近づき、引き続き忙しく過ごしています。米国の伝統もロシアの伝統も引き継ぎながら準備をしていますので、それぞれの違いを尊重しながら楽しんでいます。今日は、忙しい合間に少しリラックスした時間を過ごした際の写真を共有させていただきますね！ pic.twitter.com/0BD2efLbPbJuly 30, 2025
Crew-11 will dock at 3 a.m. ET (0800 GMT) on Aug. 2 and can overlap with the Crew-10 astronauts for just a few days to make sure a easy handover earlier than Crew-10 makes its method again to Earth for a splashdown within the Pacific Ocean.
If all goes in accordance with plan, the 4 members of Crew-11 will stay docked on the ISS for roughly six months earlier than the subsequent NASA astronaut rotation relieves them.
The U.S. Area Power has predicted a 90% likelihood of favorable climate for Crew-11 at launch time.
