NASA and its international partners will hold two major press conferences on Thursday, July 10, to discuss the upcoming Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The briefings will take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and be streamed live on the agency’s YouTube channel.
The first news conference at 12 p.m. EDT will provide a mission overview featuring NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich, SpaceX’s Dragon Mission Management director Sarah Walker, JAXA’s Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate head Mayumi Matsuura, and other mission leaders. They will discuss final preparations for launch and mission objectives.
At 2 p.m. EDT, Crew-11 astronauts will speak to the media. The four-member team includes:
Zena Cardman (NASA): First-time flyer and Crew-11 commander, with a background in geobiology and marine sciences. She has supported lunar exploration planning since becoming an astronaut in 2017.
Mike Fincke (NASA): Veteran astronaut and pilot for Crew-11, with 382 days in space and nine spacewalks from three prior missions, including STS-134, the final flight of Endeavour.
Kimiya Yui (JAXA): Mission specialist returning for his second ISS mission after spending 142 days in space during Expedition 44/45 and becoming the first Japanese astronaut to capture the H-II Transfer Vehicle.
Oleg Platonov (Roscosmos): First-time flyer with engineering and air traffic management degrees, selected as a cosmonaut in 2018.
Individual astronaut interviews will follow at 3 p.m. EDT, marking the final media opportunity before the crew departs for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for launch.
Crew-11 will launch in late July or early August aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. During their mission, the crew will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to advance human spaceflight and benefit life on Earth.
The briefings come as NASA continues its rotation of international crews, strengthening partnerships with JAXA and Roscosmos and advancing the agency’s goals for long-duration human space exploration under the Artemis program and future missions to Mars.
