NASA, SpaceX ‘thread the clouds’ to launch Crew-11 to the International Space Station – Spaceflight Now

Weather threatened to delay the Crew-11 mission for a second time, however the launch workforce was in a position to “thread the clouds” and a four-person crew lifted off on a journey to the International Space Station.

Nine Merlin engines roared to life at 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 UTC) and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sped away by way of the cloudy skies above Florida’s Space Coast. Less than 10 minutes after liftoff, the Crew Dragon spacecraft, named ‘Endeavour’, flew free from the rocket’s second stage.

“I have no emotions, but joy right now. That was absolutely transcendent, the ride of a lifetime,” stated NASA astronaut and Crew-11 commander Zena Cardman, shortly after getting into the microgravity setting for the primary time in her profession. “Thank you, this has been an incredible honor.”

Cardman was beforehand scheduled to fly because the commander of the Crew-9 mission, which launched in September 2024. She, together with NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson, had been pulled from that mission to make room for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return on Dragon from the ISS after points arose with their Starliner spacecraft.

The growth delays from Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft additionally affected two different members of the Crew-11 mission. NASA astronaut Mike Fincke and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui had been each coaching as crew members on the Starliner-1 mission, the primary operational crew rotation mission for that car.

Instead, the duo had been reassigned to Crew-11 within the Dragon Pilot and Mission Specialist 1 positions. For Fincke, a veteran of Soyuz and Shuttle flights, this mission is his first time in area after a 14-year hole. He was a member of one other Endeavour crew: Shuttle mission STS-134.

“Boy, it’s great to be back in orbit again!” Fincke exclaimed. “Thank you to SpaceX and NASA for getting us here. What a ride! And Zena and Oleg, let me be the second to welcome you to your first orbit around beautiful planet Earth.”

Crew-11 is the second flight to the area station for Yui. He beforehand launched on a Soyuz spacecraft in 2015 for a long-duration mission onboard the orbiting outpost.

The different mission specialist, Roscosmos cosmonaut, Oleg Platonov can be having fun with his first journey to area. He was beforehand assigned as a backup crew member for a Russian Soyuz mission, however was pulled from a future Soyuz flight project by Roscosmos’ medical board.

The four-member crew will spend a minimal of six and doubtlessly as many as eight months on the ISS earlier than returning for a splashdown off the coast of California. The Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the area station at 3 a.m. EDT (0700 UTC) on Saturday, Aug. 2.