CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX’s Crew-11 astronaut mission to the Worldwide House Station for NASA is go for launch.
When Crew-11 launches, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will elevate off from historic Launch Advanced 39A right here at NASA’s Kennedy House Middle (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 depend 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 wanting to see this mission launch, however as all the time, we launch once we’re prepared. With a bit of luck, we’ll see a launch quickly, and we’ll additionally see a crew come residence quickly,” mentioned Ken Bowersox, affiliate administrator for NASA’s House Operations Mission Directorate, throughout a prelaunch briefing at KSC at this time (July 30). “However be affected person with us. Let’s make it possible for the car is able to go and that our group is actually 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 at this time’s briefing. “As you understand, this can be a actually vital mission for us. It is our sixth flight of Dragon Endeavour. We labored very laborious with SpaceX to finish all of the reuse actions for this car,” Stich mentioned. “We had licensed the autos — the Dragons — for less than 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 house. In a press briefing earlier this month, Cardman pressured how six-month stays on the ISS just like the one she is going to embark on will assist put together NASA to ship astronauts a lot farther into house.
“Understanding methods to reside and work for lengthy durations — going and staying — is a extremely attention-grabbing problem, and I am grateful that we have gotten the possibility to do that — to hone our expertise on the ISS, in order that we will do that for longer durations on the moon,” Cardman mentioned.
“The Worldwide House Station, in my perspective, is a completely important 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 house. 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. House 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 house company Roscosmos, mission specialist, making his first journey to house.
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 clean handover earlier than Crew-10 makes its approach again to Earth for a splashdown within the Pacific Ocean.
If all goes based on plan, the 4 members of Crew-11 will stay docked on the ISS for roughly six months earlier than the following NASA astronaut rotation relieves them.
The U.S. House Power has predicted a 90% probability of favorable climate for Crew-11 at launch time.
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