Dragon docked with the International Space Station at 7:05 p.m. EDT on October 1, 2026. The trip took 7 hours and 55 minutes, the fastest journey from launch to the station by a US crewed spacecraft.
Joshua Kutryk is in orbit as his wife prepares to give birth to their third child. The four astronauts will spend about six months aboard the station, working alongside Expedition 75.
SpaceX launched the NASA mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, October 1, at 11:10 a.m. EDT. A leak in the Dragon capsule's fuel system had delayed the launch by three weeks. Heavy clouds threatened the countdown that morning, but cleared enough for liftoff.
The station's position helped make the fast transit possible. It was the quickest journey to the ISS by SpaceX or any US organization, including NASA. NASA and SpaceX called the 7-hour-55-minute trip the fastest flight to the station by an American crewed spacecraft. NASA and Space.com reported that the record was about five hours faster than the previous benchmark.
The flight also produced another first.
Jessica Watkins became the first African American woman to lead a crew into orbit. The geologist previously worked with NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. She first visited the station on a long mission in 2022. This is her second trip to the orbital laboratory.
Watkins is flying with three spaceflight newcomers. Luke Delaney, a NASA pilot, is a former Marine. Joshua Kutryk is a Canadian Royal Air Force colonel, while Sergey Teteryatnikov is a Russian former submariner. They will replace four astronauts who have lived aboard the station since February.
The mission is officially called Crew-13. Its emblem draws on Apollo 13, the 1970 lunar mission that ended with its astronauts returning safely to Earth after an emergency. NASA identifies Crew-13 as the 13th rotational Crew Dragon mission under its Commercial Crew program. NASA also identifies Kutryk's flight as his first journey into space, making him the first Canadian astronaut to fly on this mission.
The crew embraced the number's symbolism before launch. They traveled to the pad in black Teslas with plates bearing the words Lucky 13. They also carried a small crocheted golden dragon named Lucky, with a four-leaf clover around its neck.
Watkins later said the crew had brought its own luck but had not needed it. A leak in the Dragon fuel system had delayed the mission by three weeks. Then the weather threatened the launch.
PBS NewsHour also attributed the delay to the leak. NASA's mission information describes the flight as part of the continuing Commercial Crew program.
Kutryk's family faces the mission's most personal moment. His wife Heather is due to give birth in late November while he remains in orbit. The Canadian Space Agency has promised to support the family. NASA manager Dana Weigel said the agency would do everything possible to keep him in contact with them.
Kutryk will become the fourth man to become a father while orbiting Earth. The precedent offers little practical comfort. Austrian astronaut Franz Viehbock's daughter was born hours after he left for the Soviet Mir station in 1991. He did not learn the news until the following day.
SpaceX kept launching after Crew-13 left Earth. Three hours later, the company launched a Falcon rocket from California carrying more than 100 small satellites. Another Falcon was scheduled to lift off from Florida that night with a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.
That same week, SpaceX's giant Starship made its first orbital flight. The company had several parts of its space program moving at once, from Crew-13 to the Falcon launches and Starship.
