SpaceX launched NASA's Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station on Thursday, sending four astronauts on the fastest US trip to the orbiting lab in history — just 7 hours and 50 minutes from liftoff to docking. Commander Jessica Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit.
Crew-13 launch: record-fast 7h 50m trip
A Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:10 a.m. EDT on October 1, 2026, after a three-week delay to repair the Crew Dragon capsule's leaking fuel system. Thick morning clouds threatened the countdown but cleared in time. The first-stage booster B1101 flew itself back to land at Cape Canaveral, while the Crew Dragon capsule — named Grace, on its second flight after carrying the Axiom-4 crew in 2025 — docked at the station around 7 p.m. EDT.
The 7-hour, 50-minute transit beats every previous American crew flight; a standard Crew Dragon trip takes 15 hours to a full day. The absolute record still belongs to Russia's Soyuz MS-17, which reached the station in 3 hours 3 minutes in 2020.
Meet the Crew-13 astronauts
- Jessica Watkins (NASA) — commander, 38, geologist who once worked on the Curiosity Mars rover team. Her second spaceflight; first NASA astronaut to fly twice aboard a Crew Dragon.
- Luke Delaney (NASA) — pilot, 47, former test pilot and retired Marine. First spaceflight.
- Joshua Kutryk (Canadian Space Agency) — mission specialist, Royal Canadian Air Force colonel. First spaceflight — and the first Canadian to fly under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. His wife is expecting their third child in late November.
- Sergey Teteryatnikov (Roscosmos) — mission specialist, former submariner. First spaceflight.
Six months of science ahead
The crew will live and work aboard the ISS for six months, replacing four astronauts who have been there since February. Their research targets human health in orbit — including stem-cell-derived tissue studies for heart disease and Parkinson's treatments — plus crop production, blood-flow changes in space, and new astronaut health monitoring equipment, all feeding into future moon and Mars missions.
The flight is the 13th long-duration crew NASA has flown aboard SpaceX since 2020 — and possibly one of Dragon's last, as SpaceX concentrates on Starship. "I do not think it's a secret that SpaceX intends to sunset older platforms like Falcon and Dragon," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said this week. Days earlier, Starship completed its first trip to orbit and first commercial satellite deployment.
Watch: SpaceX Crew-13 launch — the fastest US flight to the space station
Sources: Reuters, AP via Weather.com, NASA, Bloomberg