NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 reaches ISS in record-setting launch-to-docking trip

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), the agency announced Thursday, as the spacecraft completed a record-setting journey from Florida with four astronauts aboard.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11.10 am local time (1510GMT), said NASA.

The rocket passed through maximum dynamic pressure before its first and second stages separated. The first stage then completed a boostback maneuver and landed at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral.

The Dragon spacecraft later separated from the Falcon 9’s second stage and reached orbit before docking with the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at 7.05 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2305GMT), NASA said.

The journey from launch to docking took seven hours and 55 minutes, making it the fastest launch-to-docking of a US spacecraft in the history of the International Space Station, according to NASA.

After docking, the crew completed leak checks and pressurization procedures before, at 9.19 pm, Dragon’s hatch opened. Watkins, Delaney, Kutryk and Teteryatnikov then entered the space station.

At the time of launch, the station was traveling at about 17,500 miles per hour roughly 263 miles above Earth, northwest of Havana, Cuba.

Crew-13 joined the Expedition 75 crew already aboard the station, including NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Anil Menon, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Anna Kikina and Andrey Fedyaev.