SpaceX launched its eleventh operational astronaut mission for NASA at present (Aug. 1), sending the 4 Crew-11 astronauts on a flight towards the International Space Station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 11:43 a.m. EDT (1543 GMT) at present. Atop the rocket was the corporate’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft making its sixth flight, a reuse file for Crew Dragon automobiles.
The launch occurred a day later than initially deliberate; SpaceX tried to get Crew-11 off the bottom on Thursday (July 31) however needed to scrub that try with a few minute left within the countdown clock on account of intruding clouds.
Just below eight minutes after launch, the mission’s Falcon 9 booster got here down for a touchdown at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is subsequent door to KSC, making a thunderous sonic growth audible for miles.
This marked the final touchdown that can occur at LZ-1, which is able to now be retired. In March 2023, the U.S. Space Force introduced that Launch Complex 13, the place LZ-1 is positioned, can be leased to 2 non-public corporations, Phantom Space and Vaya Space.
The Space Force’s announcement added that personal suppliers like SpaceX can submit requests for touchdown zone capabilities at their very own launch complexes, “which will then go through an extensive evaluation process.”
SpaceX nonetheless operates one other booster touchdown website on the Cape, nonetheless, referred to as Landing Zone 2.
Crew-11 consists of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Oleg Platonov of Russia’s area company Roscosmos.
This would be the first spaceflight for Crew-11 commander Cardman, who was initially scheduled to launch on the Crew-9 mission. Cardman was faraway from that mission as a result of Crew-9 ended up launching to the International Space Station (ISS) with solely two astronauts on board in an effort to make room for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the return journey. The duo have been left with out a devoted trip house after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that ferried them to the ISS on its first crewed take a look at flight in June 2024 encountered leaks and propulsion points.
Fincke can be making his fourth journey to area on Crew-11 whereas serving as pilot, having beforehand flown three area shuttle missions to the ISS. As essentially the most skilled spaceflyer, Fincke mentioned he is wanting ahead to seeing the reactions of his crewmates, two of whom are making their first journey to orbit.
“I remember how moving it was, and how breathtaking it was for me, and I want to share their joy in that,” Fincke beforehand informed Space.com.
Crew-11 marks the second spaceflight for mission specialist Kimiya Yui of Japan, who beforehand spent 142 days on the ISS throughout Expedition 44/45 in 2015. During that mission, Yui helped assemble laboratory gear in Japan’s Kibo science module.
Rounding out the crew is Russia’s Oleg Platonov, who’s making his first journey into area and serving as mission specialist.
Once their spacecraft is docked safely on the ISS and the hatch is opened, the 4 Crew-11 astronauts will start relieving the members of SpaceX’s earlier mission for NASA, Crew-10. Crew-11 docking is at the moment scheduled for 3 a.m. ET (0700 GMT) on Saturday (Aug. 2).
NASA overlaps astronaut missions to the ISS as a part of the company’s routine crew rotation in an effort to keep a steady presence on the area station. The Crew-10 and Crew-11 astronauts will overlap for a few week to make sure a easy handover of science experiments and tasks, upkeep duties and station operations.
After Crew-11 is settled in, the 4 Crew-10 astronauts — who launched in March 2025 — will make their method again right down to Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that introduced them there.
The Crew-11 astronauts will spend roughly six months aboard the orbital laboratory conducting science experiments that embrace simulating moon landings close to the lunar south pole, testing how astronauts can defend their eyesight from the consequences of microgravity, and finding out how plant cells divide in area. In addition, the crew will conduct experiments to “produce a higher volume of human stem cells and generate on-demand nutrients,” according to NASA.
However, NASA is contemplating extending Crew Dragon missions to eight months, in response to Dana Weigel, the International Space Station Program Manager at NASA. “We’re looking at that right now for the Dragon flights, and so we are looking at the potential to extend this current flight, Crew-11,” Weigel mentioned throughout a prelaunch press convention on Wednesday (July 30).
Aside from relieving the Crew-10 astronauts for his or her return journey house, Crew-11 will see the arrival of the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-28 mission in November 2025, which is able to welcome NASA astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. A Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft can also be anticipated to launch and dock throughout Crew-11’s keep.
As its identify implies, Crew-11 is the eleventh operational astronaut mission SpaceX has flown for NASA, however the twelfth flight below the company’s Commercial Crew Program, through which NASA employed non-public corporations to ship astronauts to and from the ISS. The first Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 was additionally carried out below this system.