Astronauts sidelined for the past year by Boeing’s Starliner trouble blasted off to the International Space Station
The crew of a Nasa mission to the International Space Station pose before boarding their SpaceX rocket (AP Photo/John Raoux) (John Raoux/AP)
By Associated Press Reporters
August 01, 2025
Astronauts sidelined for the past year by Boeing’s Starliner trouble blasted off to the International Space Station on Friday, getting a lift from SpaceX.
The US-Japanese-Russian crew of four rocketed from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre. They will replace colleagues who launched to the space station in March as fill-ins for Nasa’s two stuck astronauts.
Their SpaceX capsule should reach the orbiting lab this weekend and stay for at least six months.
Zena Cardman, a biologist and polar explorer who should have launched last year, was ditched along with another Nasa crewmate to make room for Starliner’s star-crossed test pilots.
SpaceX launches joint astronaut crew to ISS in NASA's Crew-11 mission
While normal crew rotation missions last roughly six months, the Crew-11 crew may be the first to settle into a new routine time of eight months.
An international crew of four astronauts launched toward the International Space Station from Florida on Friday aboard a SpaceX rocket, embarking on a routine NASA mission that could be the first of many to last a couple of months longer than usual.
The four-person crew - two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and a Japanese astronaut - boarded SpaceX's Dragon capsule sitting atop its Falcon 9 rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and beat gloomy weather to blast off at 11:43 a.m. ET (1543 GMT). After a roughly 16 hour flight, they will arrive at the ISS at around 3 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday.
While normal crew rotation missions last roughly six months, the Crew-11 crew may be the first to settle into a new routine time of eight months, intended to better align US mission schedules with Russia's missions, NASA said.
Over the next few months, NASA officials will monitor the health of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which remains docked to the ISS, before committing the mission to a full eight months.
Thursday's mission, called Crew-11, includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.
First face-to-face meeting between heads of NASA, RoscosmosTheir visit on Thursday included the first face-to-face meeting between the heads of NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, since 2018. Roscosmos said Bakanov and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy discussed continued ISS operations and cooperation on the moon.
The space cooperation is a bright spot in otherwise largely frosty US-Russia relations since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
However, apart from ISS cooperation, Russia's invasion isolated Moscow's space program from the West and foiled plans to cooperate on NASA's Artemis moon program. Russia opted to partner on China's moon program, which rivals Artemis.
No new commitments on any space programs were made during the brief meeting between Bakanov and Duffy, a person familiar with the discussion said.
Astronauts sidelined for the past year by Boeing’s Starliner trouble blasted off to the International Space Station on Friday, getting a lift from SpaceX.
The US-Japanese-Russian crew of four rocketed from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre. They will replace colleagues who launched to the space station in March as fill-ins for Nasa’s two stuck astronauts.
Their SpaceX capsule should reach the orbiting lab this weekend and stay for at least six months.
Zena Cardman, a biologist and polar explorer who should have launched last year, was ditched along with another Nasa crewmate to make room for Starliner’s star-crossed test pilots.
While normal crew rotation missions last roughly six months, the Crew-11 crew may be the first to settle into a new routine time of eight months.
A SpaceX Falcon Nine rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A carrying NASA’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, August 1, 2025.(photo credit: REUTERS/STEVE NESIUS)
By REUTERS
AUGUST 1, 2025
An international crew of four astronauts launched toward the International Space Station from Florida on Friday aboard a SpaceX rocket, embarking on a routine NASA mission that could be the first of many to last a couple of months longer than usual.
The four-person crew - two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and a Japanese astronaut - boarded SpaceX's Dragon capsule sitting atop its Falcon 9 rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and beat gloomy weather to blast off at 11:43 a.m. ET (1543 GMT). After a roughly 16 hour flight, they will arrive at the ISS at around 3 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday.
While normal crew rotation missions last roughly six months, the Crew-11 crew may be the first to settle into a new routine time of eight months, intended to better align US mission schedules with Russia's missions, NASA said.
Over the next few months, NASA officials will monitor the health of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which remains docked to the ISS, before committing the mission to a full eight months.
Thursday's mission, called Crew-11, includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.
A SpaceX Falcon Nine rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A carrying NASA’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, August 1, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/STEVE NESIUS)
NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 crew members, Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, Pilot Mike Fincke of the U.S., Commander Zena Cardman of the U.S., and Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui of Japan's JAXA, react as they stand outside the Operations & Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center. (credit: REUTERS/STEVE NESIUS)
A previous attempt to launch on Thursday was scratched at the last minute because of bad weather.
A delegation of senior Russian space officials, including the head of Russia's space agency, Dmitry Bakanov, was in Florida for the launch attempt on Thursday, but it was unclear whether they stayed in town for Friday's launch.
A delegation of senior Russian space officials, including the head of Russia's space agency, Dmitry Bakanov, was in Florida for the launch attempt on Thursday, but it was unclear whether they stayed in town for Friday's launch.
First face-to-face meeting between heads of NASA, RoscosmosTheir visit on Thursday included the first face-to-face meeting between the heads of NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, since 2018. Roscosmos said Bakanov and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy discussed continued ISS operations and cooperation on the moon.
The space cooperation is a bright spot in otherwise largely frosty US-Russia relations since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
However, apart from ISS cooperation, Russia's invasion isolated Moscow's space program from the West and foiled plans to cooperate on NASA's Artemis moon program. Russia opted to partner on China's moon program, which rivals Artemis.
No new commitments on any space programs were made during the brief meeting between Bakanov and Duffy, a person familiar with the discussion said.
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