A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft docked with the Harmony module of the International Space Station, completing the first part of its Crew-11 or SpaceX Crew-11 mission that began with its launch about 15.5 hours earlier. After checking that the pressure gets properly balanced, the hatch will be opened to allow Oleg Platonov, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui, and Zena Cardman to enter the Station and start their mission, which could last even 8 months.
The four new members of the International Space Station crew, who are added to the Expedition 73 crew, are:
Zena Maria Cardman. Born on October 26, 1987, in Urbana, Illinois, USA, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later a master’s degree in marine sciences. She participated in scientific research in various areas of the world, including caves, deep seas, the Arctic, and Antarctica, sometimes on offshore expeditions on board research ships. She also worked on NASA scientific operations before being selected as an astronaut in 2017. This is her first space mission.
Edward Michael “Mike” Fincke. Born on March 14, 1967, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, he earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering and in Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in aeronautics from Stanford University. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a pilot, reaching the rank of colonel. In 1996, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA. He has already served on the International Space Station between April and October 2004 as part of Expedition 9 and between October 2008 and April 2009 as part of Expedition 18. In 2011, he was part of the crew of the STS-134 mission, the last of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, during which various tasks were carried out on the Station.
Kimiya Yui. Born on January 30, 1970, in Kawakami, Nagano, Japan, he graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1992. He served as a pilot of the F-15 Eagle, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 2012, he was part of the NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) 16 mission in the Aquarius underwater laboratory off the Florida coast. He already served on the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 44/45.
Oleg Vladimirovich Platonov. Born on June 27, 1986, in Chelyabinsk, in the then USSR and now Russia, he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering with a specialization in “Aircraft Operation and Air Traffic Management.” He enlisted in the Russian Air Force, where he served as a pilot. In 2018, he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate. This is his first space mission.
The Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is the first Crew Dragon on its sixth mission, but SpaceX’s records no longer make the news. Elon Musk’s company remains the only one ensuring the US has a reliable astronaut transport vehicle. The Crew-11 mission is impacted by Boeing’s problems because Zena Cardman was supposed to be part of Crew-9, but the crew was cut in half to bring the Starliner Calypso astronauts back to Earth. Michael Fincke and Kimiya Yui were supposed to be part of the first official Starliner mission, which is now in limbo, to say the least.
