Overview
- SpaceX launched Crew‑13 from Cape Canaveral Thursday after a three‑week delay to repair a fuel‑system leak in the Dragon capsule.
- The Dragon spacecraft Grace docked to the International Space Station about eight hours after liftoff, completing a roughly seven hour 55 minute transit that NASA and mission reports called the fastest U.S. capsule trip to the station.
- The four‑person crew aboard Grace includes commander Jessica Watkins and mission pilots Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk and Sergey Teteryatnikov, with Watkins becoming the first Black/Afro‑descendant woman to lead an orbital crew.
- Crew‑13 began a several‑day handover with Crew‑12 before Crew‑12’s planned return to Earth, and the Canadian Space Agency said it will support astronaut Joshua Kutryk’s family as he becomes a father while on orbit.
- This flight is SpaceX’s thirteenth crewed NASA mission, its patch nods to Apollo 13, and the rapid, routine rotations highlight the company’s growing role in keeping the ISS staffed as agencies plan a transition to commercial low‑Earth orbit platforms by about 2030.