SpaceX Crew-13 launches to space station in record-fast eight-hour dash

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, carrying NASA’s Crew-13 to the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon capsule Grace (Florida Today). Grace (C213) is on its second flight, after debuting on Axiom’s Ax-4 mission in June 2025.

The mission’s roughly eight-hour trip to the station is expected to be the fastest launch-to-docking for a US spacecraft in ISS history, with docking planned for about 7 p.m. EDT (NASA). The Falcon 9 first-stage booster returned to land at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes after liftoff.

Commander Jessica Watkins, a geologist making her second spaceflight, becomes the first NASA astronaut to fly twice aboard a Crew Dragon (Reuters). Beside her flies pilot Luke Delaney, a former test pilot on his first trip to space, mission specialist Joshua Kutryk — a Canadian fighter pilot and the first CSA astronaut in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program — and Roscosmos mission specialist Sergey Teteryatnikov, also on his debut.

The 13th long-duration NASA Commercial Crew mission, a roughly six-month stay, was originally targeted for Sept 12 before an oxidizer leak in Grace’s propulsion system forced a scrub; SpaceX later replaced an oxidizer valve (SpaceQ).