<figure id="attachment_3124527" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3124527" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3124527" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/c5714d9a-afp__20250801__68kj2qy__v1__highres__nasasspacexcrew11launchestointernationalspacest.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3124527" class="wp-caption-text">The Crew-11 mission marks the 11th crew rotation mission to the ISS under Nasa&#8217;s Commercial Crew Program. (AFP pic)</figcaption></figure>
MERRITT ISLAND: Nasa and SpaceX launched a four-member crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for the latest research expedition to the orbiting laboratory.
American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan&#8217;s Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov lifted off at 11.43 am aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The capsule, named Endeavour, has previously flown four Nasa missions as well as a private mission.
The Crew-11 mission marks the 11th crew rotation mission to the ISS under Nasa&#8217;s Commercial Crew Program, which was created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry.
As part of their six-month stay, the Crew-11 astronauts will simulate Moon landing scenarios that could be encountered near the lunar South Pole under the US-led Artemis program.
Using handheld controllers and multiple display screens, they will test how shifts in gravity affect astronauts&#8217; ability to pilot spacecraft, including future lunar landers.
Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a vital testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration – including eventual missions to Mars.
Among Crew-11&#8217;s more colorful cargo items are Armenian pomegranate seeds, which will be compared to a control batch kept on Earth to study how microgravity influences crop growth.
The ISS is set to be de-commissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.
Dmitry Bakanov, the head of Russia&#8217;s space agency Roscosmos has been holding talks with Nasa&#8217;s acting administrator Sean Duffy this week about the station&#8217;s future.
When US-Russia relations nosedived at the start of the Ukraine war, Russia threatened to pull out of ISS cooperation early. But on Thursday, Bakanov confirmed Russia remained committed to de-orbiting in 2030.

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