NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission blasted off at 3:27 a.m. EDT on Saturday, August 26, 2023, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft were NASA astronaut and mission commander Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut and pilot Andreas Mogensen, JAXA astronaut and mission specialist Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Konstantin Borisov. This marks SpaceX’s 11th overal crewed mission and the 10th operational Commercial Crew flight to the International Space Station.
The early morning launch went smoothly, with the Falcon 9 rocket propelling the Crew Dragon into orbit. If all goes according to plan, the Endurance will dock with the space station on Sunday, August 28 at 8:50 a.m. EDT. The Crew-7 astronauts are scheduled to spend six months living and working aboard the orbiting laboratory.
During their stay, Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov will conduct cutting-edge scientific research in areas such as botany, fluid physics, and human health. They will also perform station maintenance, conduct spacewalks, welcome visiting vehicles, and prepare the station for future crew rotations.
This is SpaceX’s second crewed mission to the space station in just over a month. NASA’s Crew-6 mission, carrying Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Matthias Maurer, and Anna Kikina, launched successfully on March 1, 2023. That crew is slated to return to Earth on September 1 after their own six-month science expedition aboard the ISS.
With the launch of Crew-7, SpaceX has now transported a total of eleven astronauts to orbit on seven successful missions since 2020. This demonstrates the company’s dependable and safe transportation of crew members to and from the space station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Looking ahead, SpaceX aims to launch the first orbital test flight of its towering Starship spacecraft. Designated to carry humans to the Moon and Mars, Starship promises to revolutionize space exploration. For now, SpaceX continues providing reliable crew rotation missions to the ISS, allowing NASA to maintain a continuous human presence conducting impactful research in space.
