Cape Canaveral: SpaceX Crew-13 mission sent four astronauts to the International Space Station(ISS) on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. EDT after launching an eight-hour express mission that set a U.S. speed record. The mission took 7 hours and 55 minutes after it launched from Florida’s Space Coast. This makes it the fastest any American spacecraft has ever reached an orbiting lab, said NASA. The previous record was 12 hours and 33 minutes, which was also set by the SpaceX team.
The team comprised Commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for NASA after a three-week delay to fix their Dragon capsule's leaking fuel system. Thick clouds threatened all morning to halt the countdown, but in the end, the skies cleared enough to allow for a safe liftoff.
It is the space station's convenient location which enabled the astronauts' fast transit.
With the takeoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit. A geologist who worked with NASA's Mars rover Curiosity a decade ago, Watkins is making her second trip to the space station following a lengthy stay in 2022. “Thanks for an amazing ride,” Watkins radioed following liftoff.
The others are newcomers to space: NASA's Luke Delaney, a retired Marine; Canada's Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Russia's Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner. They will replace four astronauts who have been living at the orbiting laboratory since February.
This was SpaceX's 13th crew for NASA, not counting the 2020 test flight. All four embrace their Crew-13 designation that pays homage in their mission patch to Apollo 13. The harrowing 1970 moonshot ended with the astronauts' safe return.
References to the number 13 abounded Thursday. Watkins and her crew rode to the launch pad in black Teslas bearing plates that read ‘Lucky 13.’ Along with them, they carried up a small crocheted golden dragon named Lucky with a four-leaf clover around its neck.
Kutryk will become the fourth man to become a father while orbiting Earth. Wife Heather is due to give birth to their third child in late November.
“A lot of life-changing things can happen over six months,” NASA manager Dana Weigel said on the eve of liftoff, noting that the space agency will do its best to keep Kutryk looped in to his family.
SpaceX, a few hours after Crew-13 blasted off, launched a Falcon rocket from California with more than 100 mini satellites. Another Falcon was set to soar late Thursday night from Florida, with a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. It all commenced the same week that the company's massive Starship reached orbit for the first time.
(With agency inputs from AP and Space.com)