SpaceX launches NASA's Crew-13 on fastest-ever US crewed trip to ISS
NASA confirms Crew-13's Dragon docked after a record 7-hour, 55-minute flight, the fastest ever for a US spacecraft to the ISS.
updates
- 2026-10-05Jessica Watkins became the first Black woman to command a crewed orbital spaceflight, per PBS NewsHour and AOL.
- 2026-10-02NASA confirms Crew-13 docked after a record 7-hour, 55-minute flight, the fastest ever for a US spacecraft to the ISS.
what happened
NASA said a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying Crew-13 commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov from Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:10 a.m. EDT on October 1, and that the Falcon 9's first stage landed at SpaceX's Landing Zone 40. The Dragon docked at the station's Harmony module forward port at 7:05 p.m. ET, about 7 hours and 55 minutes after liftoff, the fastest trip to the ISS yet for a SpaceX Dragon, per SpacePolicyOnline. The previous fastest Dragon docking was the uncrewed Cargo Dragon CRS-31 at 12 hours; Russia's Soyuz reaches the station faster, in about 3 hours, because of its launch site's more favorable latitude relative to the ISS orbit. Watkins became the first Black woman to command a crewed orbital spaceflight, per PBS NewsHour and AOL. Crew-12 is set to depart as soon as October 5 after a short handover.
why it matters
NASA and SpaceX say this is the fastest trip to the ISS yet for an American spacecraft. The flight is the 13th crewed Dragon mission under NASA's Commercial Crew Program and keeps SpaceX as NASA's only flying crew-rotation provider while Boeing's Starliner stays grounded until 2028; a clean launch clears the Dragon oxidizer-valve delay that pushed the mission past its original September target.