SpaceX Crew Dragon Carries 4 Astronauts to ISS
By Reuters | 01 Aug, 2025

SpaceX's Crew Dragon remains the dominant carrier of astronauts to the International Space Station.

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 for transport to Launch Complex 39-A, ahead of their launch to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius

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 months longer than usual.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui of Japan's JAXA gestures as he departs the Operations & Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center for transport to Launch Complex 39-A ahead of their launch to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius

The four-person crew - two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and 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.

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, U.S., August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius

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 U.S. 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 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.

Their 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 U.S.-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. 

(Reporting by Joey RouletteEditing by Frances Kerry)