HOUSTON -- Astronauts and a cosmonaut from four space agencies were on course for an Aug. 27 docking with the International Space Station (ISS) aboard NASA's SpaceX contracted Crew-7 Dragon Endurance capsule, following a successful launch from the agency's Kennedy Space Center.

Endurance lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Aug. 26 at 3:27 a.m., EDT, an instantaneous window, from Launch Complex 39A with NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli in command and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen as the pilot.

Seated with them as mission specialists were Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, who is also part of a continuing launch seat exchange agreement between NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

Launching for a third time, the Dragon Endurance is scheduled to dock with the ISS U.S. segment Harmony module's space facing port on Aug. 27 at 8:39 a.m., EDT.to initiate a six month mission of scientific research and technology development activities for its fliers.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, launching for the first time, descended to Earth at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1 just under eight minutes after lifting off.

Mission managers delayed the launch by a day to complete assessments of an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) component aboard Endurance. A sequence of valves similar to those on Endurance that flow oxygen and nitrogen into the crew cabin experienced corrosion during an uncrewed Dragon cargo mission to the ISS in June that caused one of the valves to become stuck in the closed position. The launch delay permitted an additional assessment of all the normal and contingency functions the valves might experience in flight.

The Endurance crew is to be greeted by the seven ISS Expedition 69 crew members currently commanded by Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev. Expedition 69 also includes NASA's Steve Bowen, Woody Hoburg and Frank Rubio, the United Arab Emirates Sultan Alneyadi and cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Andrew Fedyaev. Their first days of the Crew-7 arrival will be focused on a crew exchange activities, a firsthand look at ISS operations by the newcomers.

Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa and Borisov are replacing NASA's Crew-6 fliers, Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi and Fedyaev, who launched to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Crew-6 Dragon Endeavour on Mar. 2, 2023.

The Crew-6 flyers are planned for departure from the ISS in early September for their return to Earth with a parachute assisted splashdown in the coastal waters off the Florida peninsula.

As the ISS crew exchange activities move forward, Russia's Soyuz MS-24 capsule with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara are to launch to the ISS on Sept. 15 to join their Crew-7 counterparts for a six month tour of duty.

They are to replace Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, who launched aboard the Soyuz MS-22 on Sept. 21, 2022.

That trio's planned six month mission aboard the ISS was extended in response to a sudden external coolant leak experienced by the MS-22, while the crew transport capsule was docked to the ISS Russian segment in mid-December. Analysis so far points to a micrometeoroid or orbital debris impact as the cause of the damage that led to the coolant leak, according to assessments by Russian space agency experts as well as NASA.

Their damaged spacecraft was subsequently replaced by the uncrewed Soyuz MS-23.

Upon their planned Sept. 27 return to Earth in Kazakhstan, Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio will have logged 371 days in space. Rubio's mission will be the longest by an American, breaking the 355 day mark set by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei upon his Mar. 30, 2022 return to Earth from the ISS.

The Crew-7 launch marks Moghbeli's first trip to space. A U. S. Marine Lt. Col., and test pilot, she was selected by NASA for astronaut training in 2017.
An aerospace engineer, Mogensen is a veteran of a 10-day mission to the ISS in September 2015.

Furukawa, a medical doctor, is the veteran of a 165 day mission to the ISS in 2011. Borisov, an aircraft design engineer selected for cosmonaut training in September 2018, is also traveling to space for the first time.

With the departure of the Soyuz MS-23 from the ISS, command of the orbital lab is to transition from Prokoppyev to Mogensen for Expedition 70.