4-Person Crew On Mission To ISS

SpaceX will launch NASA’s Crew-11 astronauts to the International Space Station on Friday August 1, at 11:43 am EDT from Launch Complex 39A at the NASA Kennedy Space Center just outside of Titusville, Florida. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster B1094 will lift the Crew Dragon Endeavor on its way to orbit and then docking with the Station. Cloud cover resulted in a July 31st abort shortly before a previous launch attempt. 

The crew of four includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Commander, and Mike Fincke, Pilot, as well as mission specialists JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. The mission will be the first spaceflight for Cardman and Platonov while it will be Zincke’s fourth and Yui’s second.

They will spend about six months aboard the Station on a mission dedicated to scientific research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance activities. The crew will also be simulating Lunar landing scenarios that astronauts may encounter near the Lunar south pole using handheld controllers and multiple screens to identify how changes in gravity affect spatial awareness and their ability to pilot spacecraft like a Lunar lander.

After a week or so of overlap with the current crew to enable a smooth transition, the Crew-10 astronauts will return to Earth aboard their own Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The Falcon 9 B1094 booster has been launched twice previously, while this will be Crew Dragon Endeavor’s sixth mission.

Sarah Walker, Director of Dragon Mission Management for SpaceX said, "This Dragon spacecraft has successfully flown 18 crew members representing eight countries to space already, starting with [NASA astronauts] Bob [Behnken] and Doug [Hurley] in 2020, when it returned human spaceflight capabilities to the United States for the first time since the shuttle retired in July of 2011.”

FMI:  www.nasa.gov/ , www.spacex.com/