NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission successfully lifted off at 11:43 a.m. EDT on Friday from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida. The crew is heading to the International Space Station (ISS) for a months-long science expedition.
Onboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft are NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA’s Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, the spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock with the ISS’s Harmony module around 3 a.m. on Saturday, August 2.
SpaceX and NASA will oversee mission operations from control centers in California and Texas, respectively.
Crew-11 will carry out experiments in life sciences, lunar mission simulations, and space health research, supporting NASA’s broader goals including Artemis missions to the Moon and future Mars exploration.
Photo NASA
