The four members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission are aboard the International Space Station. NASA’s blog said Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk and Sergey Teteryatnikov entered the station after Dragon’s hatch opened at 9:19 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 1.
How the day unfolded
Crew-13 launched at 11:10 a.m. EDT Thursday on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Dragon docked at the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at 7:05 p.m., 7 hours and 55 minutes after liftoff. NASA called that “the fastest launch-to-docking of a U.S. spacecraft in the history of the International Space Station.”
By Plainly Now’s arithmetic, the flight ran about five minutes longer than NASA’s pre-launch plan of about 7 hours, 50 minutes, but it stayed inside the “less than nine hours” NASA described on Sept. 22.
NASA had planned the hatch opening for about 8:45 p.m., according to its docking post. The hatch opened at 9:19 p.m. By Plainly Now’s arithmetic, that was 2 hours and 14 minutes after docking and about 34 minutes after the time NASA planned. The NASA posts cited here give no reason for the later time.
Who is aboard now
As of NASA’s 10:01 p.m. EDT post, Crew-13 joins Expedition 75 crew members already aboard: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Anil Menon, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Anna Kikina and Andrey Fedyaev. By Plainly Now’s arithmetic, that is seven people already aboard plus four arrivals, or at least 11, since NASA’s list says the crew “includes” them; the 10:01 p.m. post gives no total.
NASA’s photo caption counts six spacecraft attached to the station, including both the Crew-12 and Crew-13 Dragons.
NASA’s account of the delay
On Aug. 29, NASA and SpaceX said they were adjusting the launch date “to address an oxidizer leak on Dragon’s propulsion system which was detected during standard prelaunch spacecraft processing.” On Sept. 22, NASA named 11:10 a.m. EDT on Oct. 1 as the earliest launch opportunity, the time Crew-13 lifted off.
The four crew members
Watkins, the commander, is on her second flight to the station. NASA’s preview said she would be the first NASA astronaut to launch twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon.
Delaney, the pilot, and Kutryk, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut and mission specialist, are both making their first spaceflights. Teteryatnikov, a Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist, is making his first trip to the station.
NASA’s Sept. 28 preview said the crew would fly aboard a Dragon named Grace, which previously flew in summer 2025 on the private Axiom Mission 4. The preview also said teams were preparing a Falcon 9 booster for its third flight.
Research NASA has planned
NASA describes all of this as planned work; its launch materials report no results. According to NASA’s launch release, the crew will use microgravity to produce human stem cell-derived tissues for improved personalized medicine, disease modeling and pharmaceutical testing for conditions such as heart disease and Parkinson’s.
NASA’s Sept. 28 preview quoted Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program: “During the mission, the crew will help researchers treat heart disease and Parkinson’s disease by studying human stem-cell derived tissues that can help improve medicine, disease modeling, and pharmaceutical testing,” she said. “They also will explore crop production, which is important for longer-duration spaceflight missions, help us better understand blood flow abnormalities that we see in space, and test new diagnostic medical equipment for monitoring crew health.”
What comes next
NASA said the crew will conduct a brief handover with Crew-12, made up of Meir, Hathaway, Adenot and Fedyaev, which will then return to Earth. NASA’s launch advisory said that return was expected to begin “no earlier than Monday, Oct. 5,” and that NASA “will share additional details on Crew-12’s return after Crew-13’s arrival.” The 10:01 p.m. post did not include an undocking or splashdown time.
Sources and further reading
- Crew-13 Members Enter Station, Join Expedition 75
- Dragon Docks, Bringing SpaceX Crew-13 to Station
- NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 Launches to International Space Station
- What You Need to Know About NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 Mission
- NASA Sets Crew-13 Launch, Docking Coverage
- NASA, SpaceX Adjust Crew-13 Launch Date
- NASA, SpaceX Move to Final Crew-13 Prelaunch Prep for Oct. 1 Liftoff