A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, sending an international crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Dragon spacecraft as part of NASA’s Crew-11 mission.
The crew — NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov — lifted off at 11:43 a.m. local time (1543 GMT) following a one-day delay due to bad weather. They are expected to dock with the ISS at around 3 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday after a 15-hour flight.
The mission, originally planned for a six-month rotation, may be extended to eight months to better synchronise schedules between NASA and Roscosmos, NASA said. The decision will depend on the spacecraft’s performance while docked to the station.
This marks the eleventh crew rotation flight under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions, but continued cooperation aboard the ISS. Despite Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and its pivot away from U.S.-led lunar missions, both nations remain partners in space station operations.
The Crew-11 astronauts will join seven others currently on the ISS, briefly increasing the station’s population to 11. Once the new crew settles in, NASA’s Crew-10 astronauts will return to Earth following a handover period.
While in orbit, the Crew-11 team will carry out a wide range of scientific experiments, including research on plant biology, bacterial resistance, stem cell growth, and vision protection strategies. The mission is also expected to simulate conditions relevant to future Moon and Mars expeditions.
The launch follows a rare face-to-face meeting in Florida between acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy and Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov — their first since 2018. According to Roscosmos, discussions included continued ISS cooperation and lunar exploration, though no new joint projects were announced.
Russia is currently aligned with China on lunar missions, having withdrawn from NASA’s Artemis programme following its isolation from Western space initiatives due to the Ukraine conflict.
Despite diverging goals on future Moon projects, space station collaboration remains one of the last functioning areas of U.S.-Russia cooperation, with Crew-11 highlighting the ongoing partnership — at least in orbit.
A former Apple engineer has unveiled a new Chinese chip designed to compete directly with Apple’s Vision Pro headset....
Russia has warned that any "illegal action" by the European Union regarding its frozen assets will provoke "the harshest reaction," with Moscow alread...
Families of 153 Chinese passengers aboard the missing MH370 flight are once again hopeful as a fresh search for the plane is announced....
Residents of Darfur are being systematically held for ransom by the Sudanese paramilitary force that overran a city in late October, with witnesses, a...
Kazakhstan has drafted a bill that would prohibit users under the age of 16 from registering on most online platforms....
A former Apple engineer has unveiled a new Chinese chip designed to compete directly with Apple’s Vision Pro headset.
Families of 153 Chinese passengers aboard the missing MH370 flight are once again hopeful as a fresh search for the plane is announced.
Kazakhstan has drafted a bill that would prohibit users under the age of 16 from registering on most online platforms.
Democrats of the House Oversight Committee has released previously unseen footage of Jeffrey Epstein's private island, Little St. James, following President Donald Trump's directive to make public documents related to Epstein's crimes.
Chinese scientists have unveiled a new gene-editing therapy that they say could lead to a functional cure for HIV, making it one of the most promising developments in decades of global research.
For nearly three decades following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the international system was defined by a singular, overwhelming reality: American unipolarity.
As the year comes to an end, a new initiative bringing civil society actors and regional analysts from Armenia and Azerbaijan together is steadily gaining ground.
Uzbekistan has reopened its border with Afghanistan for the first time since 2021, the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced on Tuesday.
Belgian police have raided the EU’s diplomatic service and the College of Europe as part of a corruption probe into an EU-funded training academy for diplomats, detaining three suspects and searching multiple premises, according to Politico.
A former Apple engineer has unveiled a new Chinese chip designed to compete directly with Apple’s Vision Pro headset.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has introduced its newest model, DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale, claiming it can perform some tasks as well as the latest models from Google DeepMind and OpenAI.
A new robotic system developed for the Czech Police is reshaping how complex investigations are carried out, bringing laboratory-level precision directly to crime scenes.
Chinese scientists say they are moving closer to building one of the world’s most powerful neutrino telescopes, an underwater array known as the Tropical Deep sea Neutrino Telescope, or TRIDENT, that will sit around 3,500 metres below the surface.
Russia’s state communications watchdog said it is tightening restrictions on WhatsApp, claiming the US-owned platform violates Russian law and is being used to facilitate criminal activity, according to comments carried by the Tass news agency.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment