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yesterday

SpaceX Crew-11 Arrives at International Space Station to Begin Six-Month Expedition

The reusable Dragon Endeavour docked autonomously early Saturday to launch an international science mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

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Astronaut Kimiya Yui, of Japan gestures as he leaves the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A and a planned liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, in Cape Canaveral , Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Overview

  • Falcon 9 lifted off on August 1 at 11:43 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A after a one-day weather scrub, carrying Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Mike Fincke, JAXA’s Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos’ Oleg Platonov.
  • The capsule docked at the station’s Harmony module around 3 a.m. EDT Saturday, triggering a handover with the Crew-10 team and raising the ISS population to 11.
  • During their six-month stay, Crew-11 will run lunar landing simulations, human health studies, stem cell growth trials and phage therapy tests to support Artemis and future deep-space missions.
  • Dragon Endeavour’s sixth flight makes it the most-flown Crew Dragon vehicle, demonstrating the resilience of the SpaceX–NASA partnership in sustaining continuous station operations.
  • The mission underscores U.S. collaboration with Roscosmos and JAXA and positions NASA to adopt extended crew rotations ahead of the station’s planned decommissioning by 2030.