Crew-11: A Longer Mission Due to Trump's Cuts?

Four astronauts have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. However, it's unknown when they will return to Earth. Due to NASA budget cuts , the Crew-11 mission may last longer than expected.

8 month long mission?

The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center was scheduled for July 31, but was postponed to August 1 due to adverse weather conditions. Aboard the Dragon spacecraft were Americans Zena Cardman (commander) and Michael Fincke (pilot), Japanese Kimiya Yui (mission specialist), and Russian Oleg Platonov (mission specialist). Zena Cardman was supposed to lead the Crew-9 mission, but her place and that of colleague Stephanie Wilson were handed over to Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore , who arrived at the ISS aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

Liftoff of Crew-11! pic.twitter.com/wDSMvDyF5i

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 1, 2025

Michael Fincke and Kimiya Yui had been assigned to the Boeing Starliner-1 mission, which was postponed to 2026 due to known problems with the spacecraft. The Dragon Endeavour docked yesterday morning . Crew-11 could become the longest mission ever due to NASA budget cuts for fiscal year 2026, which begins October 1.

The Trump administration wants to reduce the number of missions, so they could last longer. The current maximum is seven months, and a mission can be longer for technical or atmospheric reasons (on Earth). Crew-11 could last eight months (until April 2026), instead of the planned six months.

There's still no official confirmation for the Crew-12 mission. One option is to launch only three astronauts , instead of the usual four. This will reduce costs, but it will also slow down the execution of experiments aboard the ISS (which will be destroyed by 2030).