NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 Rocket Arrives at Launch Pad
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon crew spacecraft atop, for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission rolled out to the launch pad early Sunday, July 27, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket was raised to vertical position at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, awaiting lift off no earlier than 12:09 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 31.
The Crew-11 mission will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov to the International Space Station for a long-duration mission. Crew-11 will conduct new and exciting scientific research aboard the orbiting laboratory to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and benefit life on Earth. This is first spaceflight for Cardman and Platonov, the second for Yui, and the fourth for Fincke.
The flight is the 11th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to station, and the 12th human spaceflight under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The Crew-11 cadre will fly aboard the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft that previously flew NASA’s SpaceX Demo Mission-2, Crew-2, Crew-6, and Crew-8, in addition to Axiom Mission 1, the first private astronaut mission to the microgravity laboratory.
Keep up with the Crew-11 mission by following along on the mission blog, @NASAKennedy on X, or NASA Kennedy on Facebook.
