SpaceX launches 11th crewed mission as it heads to the International Space Station
By Russell Lewis
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 mission lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on August 26, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images hide caption
toggle caption Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty ImagesA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 mission lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on August 26, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty ImagesFour people are heading to the after a successful pre-dawn liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a .
This mission — called — took about nine minutes to reach 17,500 mph and enter low-earth orbit. For the next 29 hours, the capsule will race to catch up to the I.S.S. with a planned docking around 8:50 a.m. ET on Sunday. This is a scheduled six-month mission that's packed with .
The launch was because NASA and SpaceX said they needed additional time to reconfirm the safety and operating margin on one of the Crew Dragon capsule's "environmental control and life support system components." After a review, NASA said the valves on the system were performing normally.
The four people on board this capsule are mission commander and NASA astronaut , European Space Agency astronaut (and mission pilot) , Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut and Russian cosmonaut .
This is the first spaceflight for Moghbeli and Borisov. It's the second for Mogensen and Furakawa.
"One of the things I'm most excited about is looking back at our beautiful planet. Everyone I've talked to who has flown already has said that was, you know, kind of a life changing perspective to see Earth in that way," said NASA's Moghbeli before departing.
This is the eleventh time SpaceX has launched humans into space.
The last NASA mission — — (which ) is still docked to the I.S.S. and set to splashdown off the Florida coast five days after Crew-7 arrives at the space station.
This mission is flying a Crew Dragon spacecraft named . This capsule has flown in space two previous times and gone to the International Space Station on each mission ( from November 2021 to May 2022; and from October 2022 to March 2023). has spent a total of 333 days in space.
NASA and SpaceX Crew-7 members (L-R) Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Mission commander and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, greet the media as they arrive at the Kennedy Space Center on August 20, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesNASA and SpaceX Crew-7 members (L-R) Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Mission commander and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, greet the media as they arrive at the Kennedy Space Center on August 20, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
