NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 Mission Launches to the ISS
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lifted off at 11.10am ET this morning (Oct. 1)
(Cape Canaveral, Florida) SpaceX’s (NASDAQ: SPCX) Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew spacecraft Grace launched Dragon’s 13th operational human spaceflight mission (Crew-13) to the International Space Station (ISS) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this morning (Oct. 1) at 11.10am ET.
Image from this morning's (Oct. 1) NASA & SpaceX Crew-13 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station courtesy of spaceflight photographer Michael Cain.
Images from this morning's (Oct. 1) NASA & SpaceX Crew-13 'walkout' at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station courtesy of spaceflight photographer Michael Cain.
Image from this morning's (Oct. 1) NASA & SpaceX Crew-13 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station courtesy of spaceflight photographer Michael Cain.
Onboard Crew-13 are Commander Jessica Watkins, a geologist who also flew on Crew-4 and is now the first NASA astronaut to launch on a Crew Dragon twice; Pilot Luke Delaney, a formal naval aviation; Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, a fighter pilot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner.
Grace is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 7 p.m. ET this evening about eight hours after launch. Thereafter, the crew will spend six months aboard the orbiting lab as part of Expedition 75, relieving the Crew-12 astronauts, who will return home on Dragon Freedom after a handover.
Per SpaceX, during their time on the orbiting ISS laboratory, Crew 13 will conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth.
Post-liftoff this morning, Falcon’s first-stage booster landed back at Pad 40 minutes after takeoff. The flight marked the third for the booster, following a Starlink mission and the launch of Crew-12, according to Spaceflight Now.
