Mission Overview

Crew-11 is NASA’s eleventh crew rotation mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Crew Program. The flight is set for August 1, 2025 at 11:43 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. It will carry four crewmembers for a ~6-month science expedition. This launch was originally planned for late July, but was scrubbed due to weather; teams are currently targeting the August 1 window.

Crew and Spacecraft

The Crew-11 team consists of:

• Commander Zena Cardman (NASA): An engineer and former scientist (first spaceflight), leading the mission.
• Pilot Michael “Mike” Fincke (NASA): A veteran astronaut (three previous spaceflights). He will oversee launch and landing operations.
• Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui (JAXA): A Japanese astronaut (second flight) who will help with experiments and station activities.
• Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov (Roscosmos): A Russian cosmonaut (first flight) also contributing to station research.

This international quartet will fly in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour. Notably, this is the sixth flight for Endeavour – the first Crew Dragon ever to fly six times. SpaceX and NASA thoroughly inspected the spacecraft between missions, confirming it is flight-ready. The Falcon 9 booster (serial B1094) supporting this launch has also flown before on Starlink and Axiom-4 missions. A successful mission will add another demonstration of reused spacecraft performance.

Launch Profile and Objectives

On launch day, Falcon 9’s nine-engine first stage will roar off the pad. After stage separation, Endeavour will reach orbit and autonomously dock with the ISS a few hours later. The crew will then join the station’s seven-person expedition, taking the place of the outgoing Crew-10 team (NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Matthew Dominick, ESA’s Satoshi Akiyama, Roscosmos’s Konstantin Borisov), which will depart a few days prior.

Once aboard the ISS, Crew-11 will carry out the station’s ongoing research and maintenance. Their duties include a wide range of experiments in biology, physics and Earth science, technology demonstrations, station upkeep, and supporting NASA’s Artemis program planning. For example, Cardman and Fincke will help test new spaceflight tech (like upgraded spacesuits) and conduct experiments that simulate aspects of lunar missions. Overall, Crew-11 is the 16th crewed Dragon flight to the station, and is considered a routine but vital turnover to keep the ISS fully staffed.

Notable Facts

• Historic Sixth Flight: Endeavour’s sixth mission is a milestone – no other Dragon capsule has flown that many times.
• International Team: Crew-11’s four astronauts come from NASA, JAXA (Japan), and Roscosmos (Russia), reflecting global ISS partnership.
• Spacecraft Updates: This mission features updated IVA (intra-vehicular) spacesuits for greater mobility, as noted by NASA officials.
• Axiom Partnership: Around the same time, Axiom Space is training to send the first private astronauts to the ISS, underlining a busy 2025 schedule for U.S. spaceflight.

Conclusion

All systems are go for August 1. As Zena Cardman and her crewmates embark on this mission, they continue the steady rhythm of crew rotations that has kept the ISS continuously inhabited since 2000. Their flight will expand scientific knowledge and strengthen international cooperation in space. With SpaceX’s proven launch system and NASA’s veteran crew, Crew-11 is set to safely deliver its team to orbit and, after months of work, bring them back home – another example of how routine and reliable U.S. commercial crew missions have become.