KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The business of hurtling humans into space is getting routine on the Space Coast with the fourth flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon queued up for this week. The crew going for that ride arrived in Florida on Saturday.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, the quartet for SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station, flew into the former space shuttle landing site at KSC after noon under the searing sun as temperatures on the tarmac climbed into the 90s.
“Sorry for the heat, but it’s Florida in the summertime,” said veteran Fincke, who kept cracking jokes and even made bunny ears behind Platonov’s head during a photo as the crewmates talked to media.
They’re slated to lift off as early as 12:09 p.m. Thursday from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A atop a Falcon 9 rocket riding in the Crew Dragon Endeavour.
“We’ve been training together for over a year now and we are ready to fly,” said Cardman, who is making her first spaceflight. “As a first-time flyer, this is the first moment when it’s really starting to feel real.”
They expect at least a six-month stay on board the space station where they will relieve the four members of Crew-10 on board since March.
In addition to the two NASA flights this year, SpaceX has flown a private polar orbital mission Fram2 in March and the private Axiom Space Ax-4 mission to the space station last month.
The launch is one shy of the five human spaceflight missions from Florida seen in 2024, although it would equal the number of people launching with 16 in space. Both last year’s Boeing Starliner CFT mission and the Crew-9 mission only flew up with two crew each instead of four. That was because Crew-9 became the ride home for Starliner astronauts after NASA opted to send Boeing’s beleaguered spacecraft home minus crew over safety concerns — and they ultimately had to be ferried home by SpaceX.
NASA astronaut Michael Fincke talks about how he started to bald after going to space causing laughter from Crew-11 crewmate and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui after they arrived to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, July 26, 2025 ahead of their planned launch this week to the International Space Station. (Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) NASA astronaut and pilot Michael Fincke gives a handoff wave to Crew-11 crewmate JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yu as NASA astronaut and commander Zena Cardman, left, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, right, look on after they arrived to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, July 26, 2025 ahead of their planned launch this week to the International Space Station. (Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) NASA astronaut and pilot Michael Fincke cracks a joke causing JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui to break into laughter after they and their fellow Crew-11 crewmates, NASA astronaut and commander Zena Cardman and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, arrived to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, July 26, 2025 ahead of their planned launch this week to the International Space Station. (Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) The four members of Crew-11 arrive to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, July 26, 2025 ahead of their planned launch this week to the International Space Station. From left to right are NASA astronaut and commander Zena Cardman, NASA astronaut and pilot Michael Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov along with his translator. (Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) The four members of Crew-11 arrive to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, July 26, 2025 ahead of their planned launch this week to the International Space Station. From left to right are NASA astronaut and commander Zena Cardman, NASA astronaut and pilot Michael Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov along with his translator. (Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel) Show Caption1 of 6NASA astronaut Michael Fincke, right, raises some bunny ears behind the head Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov while posing for photos with their Crew-11 crewmates, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, after arriving at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, July 26, 2025 ahead of their planned launch this week to the International Space Station. (Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel)Expand
Endeavour is making a record sixth trip to space, the first of SpaceX’s fleet of five Crew Dragons to hit that mark as NASA looks to stretch their utility beyond the original five flights for which they have been certified.
Cardman was originally tapped as commander for the Crew-9 mission, but as a rookie, she was bumped in favor of another member of that crew with flight experience. She is now back for Crew-11 as its commander.
She becomes the last of 12 NASA astronauts from the 2017 class known as The Turtles to make it space.
“In spaceflight, the journey is often nonlinear. It’s just a privilege to be here with this crew, especially. I have the privilege of overlapping with one of my classmates, Jonny Kim, who’s currently on board as a member of Expedition 73. I also have the privilege of flying with Kimiya Yui, whose patch has a turtle on it. And so that makes him an honorary turtle in my heart.”
Fincke was also reassigned from what was supposed to be Starliner’s first operational crew mission, Starliner-1, but shifted to this SpaceX mission as Boeing and NASA continue to work on Starliner’s issues. He is making his fourth trip to space having made trips on Soyuz in 2004 and 2008 as well as the penultimate flight of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-134, on Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2011.
“It’s been a really interesting journey watching brand new spaceships be built,” Fincke said. “I’m very proud of our teams, both SpaceX and Boeing, to what they built together and really proud to actually finally fly on a commercial crew spacecraft.”
Japan’s Yui also was training for a Starliner flight, but is now headed for his second trip to space — having been on a Soyuz mission in 2015.
“My last mission was 10 years ago, so I’m very much looking forward to going back to my home,” he said.
Platonov joins Cardman as the second rookie on this mission.
The four will be on board when the station reaches a milestone on Nov. 2, which will signify 25 years of continuous occupation. They will be part of Expeditions 73 and 74 along with the three members on board that flew up on a Soyuz.
“I’m personally looking forward to going back up to the space station. I helped build it, and now I get to see it in its full maturity with six other crewmates,” Fincke said.
NASA looks to decommission the station after 2030.
“I know it’s coming near its time, but this is something that I think that humans should just really remember of all the cool things we can do when we work together constructively,” Fincke said.
