SpaceX has taken a significant step towards its next astronaut launch by moving its Crew Dragon capsule “Endeavour” to the hangar at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch on July 31, kicking off SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA.
The Crew-11 mission will send four astronauts to the ISS for a six-month stay: Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke from NASA, Kimiya Yui from Japan, and Oleg Platonov of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. This mission marks the first flight for Cardman and Platonov, while Yui has flown twice before, and Fincke is on his fourth ISS mission.
The quartet will relieve the four astronauts who have been living on the ISS since March 16. Crew-11 will be the sixth mission for Endeavour, which shares its name with one of NASA’s retired space shuttles. The spacecraft has already flown two crewed missions, including Demo-2 in 2020.
This mission is part of SpaceX’s growing presence at the ISS, having previously launched four astronaut flights to the ISS for Houston-based company Axiom Space and two free-flying crewed missions to Earth orbit.
Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-crew-dragon-capsule-endeavour-arrives-at-pad-ahead-of-july-31-astronaut-launch-photos