NEW YORK, August 1. /TASS/. SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying the Crew-11 mission crew, including Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, has departed Earth for the International Space Station (ISS), according to a live broadcast on the website of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The Falcon 9 launch vehicle carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft took off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:43 a.m. local time (3:43 p.m. GMT). Along with Platonov, US astronauts Michael Fink and Zina Cardman and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui traveled to the orbital station.

The launch of the Crew Dragon was initially scheduled for July 31, but was postponed due to bad weather.

Roscosmos and NASA collaborate on cross-flights for the ISS program. Thus, some American astronauts fly to the ISS on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and some Russian cosmonauts fly on American Crew Dragon spacecraft. In January, Maxim Kharlamov, head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (part of Roscosmos), told TASS about the program extension to include cross-flights to the ISS from 2025 to 2026.

On Thursday, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Bakanov said that US Transportation Secretary and acting NASA head Sean Duffy confirmed his willingness to extend the agreement with Roscosmos on cross-flight missions under the ISS program beyond 2026.