NASA Sets Briefings for SpaceX Crew-11 Mission to Space Station

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA and its partners will discuss the upcoming crew rotation to the International Space Station during a pair of news conferences on Thursday, July 10, from the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

First is an overview news conference at 12 p.m. EDT with mission leadership discussing final launch and mission preparations on the agency's YouTube channel.

Next, crew will participate in a news conference at 2 p.m. on NASA's YouTube channel, followed by individual astronaut interviews at 3 p.m. This is the final media opportunity with Crew-11 before they travel to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.

The Crew-11 mission, targeted to launch in late July/early August, will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov to the orbiting laboratory. The crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A.

United States-based media seeking to attend in person must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 5 p.m. on Monday, July 7, at 281-483-5111 or [email protected]. A copy of NASA's media accreditation policy is available online.

Any media interested in participating in the news conferences by phone must contact the Johnson newsroom by 9:45 a.m. the day of the event. Media seeking virtual interviews with the crew must submit requests to the Johnson newsroom by 5 p.m. on Monday, July 7.

 Briefing participants are as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations)

12 p.m.: Mission Overview News Conference

• Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy
• Bill Spetch, operations integration manager, International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson
• NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate representative
• Sarah Walker, director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX
• Mayumi Matsuura, vice president and director general, Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate, JAXA

2 p.m.: Crew News Conference

• Zena Cardman, Crew-11 commander, NASA
• Mike Fincke, Crew-11 pilot, NASA
• Kimiya Yui, Crew-11 mission specialist, JAXA
• Oleg Platonov, Crew-11 mission specialist, Roscosmos

3 p.m.: Crew Individual Interview Opportunities

• Crew-11 members available for a limited number of interviews

Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017, Cardman will conduct her first spaceflight. The Williamsburg, Virginia, native holds a bachelor's degree in Biology and a master's in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the time of selection, she was pursuing a doctorate in geosciences. Cardman's geobiology and geochemical cycling research focused on subsurface environments, from caves to deep sea sediments. Since completing initial training, Cardman has supported real-time station operations and lunar surface exploration planning. Follow @zenanaut on X and @zenanaut on Instagram.

This will be Fincke's fourth trip to the space station, having logged 382 days in space and nine spacewalks during Expedition 9 in 2004, Expedition 18 in 2008, and STS-134 in 2011, the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour. Throughout the past decade, Fincke has applied his expertise to NASA's Commercial Crew Program, advancing the development and testing of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Boeing Starliner spacecraft toward operational certification. The Emsworth, Pennsylvania, native is a graduate of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School and holds bachelors' degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in both aeronautics and astronautics, as well as Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences. He also has a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in California. Fincke is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with more than 2,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft. Follow @AstroIronMike on X and Instagram.

With 142 days in space, this will be Yui's second trip to the space station. After his selection as a JAXA astronaut in 2009, Yui flew as a flight engineer for Expedition 44/45 and became the first Japanese astronaut to capture JAXA's H-II Transfer Vehicle using the station's robotic arm. In addition to constructing a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, he conducted a total of 21 experiments for JAXA. In November 2016, Yui was assigned as chief of the JAXA Astronaut Group. He graduated from the School of Science and Engineering at the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1992. He later joined the Air Self-Defense Force at the Japan Defense Agency (currently the Ministry of Defense). In 2008, Yui joined the Air Staff Office at the Ministry of Defense as a lieutenant colonel. Follow @astro_kimiya on X.

The Crew-11 mission also will be Platonov's first spaceflight. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, Platonov earned a degree in engineering from Krasnodar Air Force Academy in aircraft operations and air traffic management. He also earned a bachelor's degree in state and municipal management in 2016 from the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia. Assigned as a test cosmonaut in 2021, he has experience in piloting aircraft, zero gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.

For more information about the mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

SOURCE NASA