NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 crew members, Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, Pilot Mike Fincke of U.S., Commander Zena Cardman of U.S., and Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui of Japan's JAXA, walk from the Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center for transport to Launch Complex 39A ahead of their launch to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., July 31, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The heads of NASA and Russia's space agency will watch American, Russian, and Japanese astronauts launch to the International Space Station from Florida on Thursday, a routine crew rotation flight coinciding with a rare face-to-face meeting between U.S. and Russian space program chiefs.
The four-person astronaut crew arrived at SpaceX's launchpad Thursday morning at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of their 12:09 pm ET (1609 GMT) launch to space, where they will spend 39 hours traveling aboard SpaceX's Dragon craft to the orbiting science lab for a mission lasting at least six months.
