PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (TNND) — A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to carry four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, marking a mission NASA claims could achieve the fastest U.S. trip to the orbiting laboratory.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 is set to lift off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 11:10 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As of Wednesday, mission teams reported they were “go” for launch, although the latest weather forecast indicated a 40% chance of favorable conditions.
The crew consists of NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who will command the flight, alongside NASA pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. Watkins brings experience from her previous 170 days aboard the ISS in 2022, while the other three members are on their inaugural spaceflights.
They will travel in the Dragon spacecraft named Grace, which previously supported the private Axiom Mission 4 flight in 2025. This mission constitutes SpaceX’s 13th crew-rotation flight to the ISS for NASA.
If all goes to plan, Grace is expected to dock at the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module around 7 p.m. EDT—approximately 7 hours and 50 minutes after launch—potentially making it the fastest U.S. spacecraft trip to the ISS in history.
Upon arrival, the astronauts will join Expedition 75 for a long-duration science mission that includes research into heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, crop production, blood-flow changes in space, and new equipment for monitoring crew health. They will also conduct a brief handover with Crew-12 astronauts, who are slated to return to Earth no earlier than Monday.
