Crew-13 docks at ISS after record-fast U.S. spacecraft trip

A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts docked with the International Space Station on October 1, about seven hours and 55 minutes after launching from Cape Canaveral, completing what NASA described as the fastest trip to the station by a U.S. spacecraft. The Crew-13 crew members are NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. They entered the orbiting laboratory after the capsule, named Grace, made contact with an ISS docking port. The four are expected to spend about six months aboard the station. NASA’s characterization of the flight as a record is based on its comparison with earlier U.S. spacecraft journeys. The reports do not detail the comparison method or list prior travel times. The actual flight was reported as seven hours and 55 minutes; NASA’s prelaunch plan had put the journey at seven hours and 50 minutes, a target that should not be confused with the completed trip time. Travel duration can vary with the relative positions of the spacecraft and station at launch.