Next Stop: ISS! Meet the Astronauts of NASA & SpaceX’s Crew-11 Mission

Get ready, space fans — another crew is heading to orbit, and it could happen as soon as July 31.

NASA and SpaceX are teaming up once again for Crew-11, their latest mission to the International Space Station (ISS), launching no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 31, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Here’s everything you need to know — from who’s going, to why this flight matters.

The four-person Crew-11 team includes:

• Zena Cardman (NASA) – Mission Commander, Virginia native, and first-time space traveler.
• Mike Fincke (NASA) – Pilot, veteran astronaut on his fourth trip to space.
• Kimiya Yui (JAXA, Japan) – Mission Specialist, returning to the ISS for the second time.
• Oleg Platonov (Roscosmos, Russia) – Mission Specialist, also making his space debut.

It’s an international mix of seasoned explorers and first-timers, coming together for a months-long science mission aboard the orbiting lab.

Crew-11 is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which contracts private companies (like SpaceX) to handle crewed flights to the ISS. This frees NASA up to focus on future goals — like returning astronauts to the Moon and eventually reaching Mars.

The astronauts will fly aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, launched on a Falcon 9 rocket. Dragon’s been the workhorse of crew missions since 2020, and it’s currently the only US spacecraft that can carry people to and from the space station.

This flight follows up on Crew-10, which arrived at the station in March and played a pivotal role in wrapping up the rocky Boeing Starliner test. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were stuck on the ISS for months due to Starliner issues, finally got home thanks to Dragon.

Now, Crew-11 will take the baton — handling research, station operations, and hosting other expeditions during their long stay in orbit.

Cardman, Fincke, and Yui weren’t originally scheduled for Crew-11. They were supposed to fly with Boeing’s Starliner, but delays and problems with that vehicle led to reshuffling. Instead, NASA reassigned them to this mission — a move that reflects just how critical SpaceX’s reliability has become.

Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect:

• Launch Target: Thursday, July 31 at 12:09 p.m. ET
• Docking Time: Saturday, Aug. 2 at around 3 a.m. ET
• Coverage: Stream the action live on NASA+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and NASA’s YouTube channel.
• Arrival Events: After docking, expect hatch opening at 4:45 a.m. and a welcome ceremony around 5:30 a.m.

NASA will also provide behind-the-scenes coverage, including crew arrival events, press briefings, and post-launch updates.

The ISS is currently hosting the Crew-10 team — NASA’s Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Russia’s Kirill Peskov — as well as Expedition 73’s Jonny Kim (NASA), Sergey Ryzhikov, and Alexey Zubritsky (Roscosmos).

Once Crew-11 arrives and settles in, Crew-10 will head home aboard the same Dragon that brought them up — but not before a brief overlap to hand things off.

Follow along on social media with hashtags #Crew11 and #NASASocial:

• Twitter/X: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @Space_Station, @SpaceX
• Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @ISS, @SpaceX
• Facebook: NASA, SpaceX, ISS National Lab

USA Today and NASA contributed to this report.