This mission will mark 25 years of continuous human presence in space on Nov. 2.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket threaded through the clouds of a stormy Florida sky just before midday on Aug. 1, as the 11th act of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) commercial crew program set off for the International Space Station.
Strapped on top, inside the Dragon Endeavor capsule, were NASA Astronauts Zena Cardman (mission commander) and Mike Fincke (mission pilot, as well as Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), both of whom were named mission specialists.
This was the second launch attempt, following one on July 31 that was scrubbed due to weather, with only 67 seconds left on the countdown. Like the first attempt, this launch required an instantaneous launch right on time, but the storm remained clear of the site long enough for the four-person crew to lift off.
After taking off from Launch Pad 39A, Crew-11 began a roughly 16-hour orbital flight, called a phasing period, to catch up to the space station, compared to the near-40-hour spaceflight it would have had if the rocket had launched on July 31.
Despite the launch delay, NASA confirmed that Crew-11 would arrive at the space station at the time originally planned.
Following the crew’s arrival, they will participate in a three-day handover period with the Crew-10 mission.
This was the third launch of the Dragon 9 booster, which made the final landing on Landing Zone 1 at Kennedy Space Center, the sixth flight for the Endeavor capsule, and SpaceX’s fourth crewed flight and fifth overall to the space station so far this year.
Crew-11 will then spend 6 months onboard, doing a variety of scientific experiments, conducting lunar landing simulations and other tests to advance understanding of long-term spaceflight on the human body, and receiving multiple different resupply modules. SpaceX’s upcoming cargo mission will deliver a booster kit designed to help save fuel already onboard to keep the space station at an optimal altitude.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
By T.J. Muscaro
