SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 12:09 p.m. Eastern on 31 July, sending the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour and four crewmembers toward the International Space Station for a roughly six-month stay. NASA reported nominal ascent and confirmed Dragon is on the correct orbit following main-engine cutoff and second-stage separation. The Crew-11 team comprises NASA commander Zena Cardman, making her first spaceflight; NASA pilot Mike Fincke, embarking on his fourth mission; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui, on his second flight; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, a first-time flier. Docking with the orbital laboratory is targeted for around 07:00 a.m. Eastern on 2 August, when the quartet will replace the outgoing Crew-10 contingent and begin about 180 days of research and station maintenance. Endeavour’s launch marks the capsule’s sixth trip to orbit, the most for any Crew Dragon vehicle to date. It is the 11th operational crew-rotation flight that NASA has undertaken with SpaceX—and the 12th human spaceflight overall—under the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA says the capsule carries upgrades including a redesigned drag-chute, enhanced thermal-protection tiles and more flexible IB-8 pressure suits. Favorable weather, assessed at 90 % go, helped keep the countdown on schedule. The mission begins as the ISS approaches the 25th anniversary of continuous human presence later this year, with NASA citing the rotation flights as critical to sustaining scientific output and preparing for future exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.