Four astronauts lifted off Thursday on a mission to the International Space Station that will keep them aloft through the spring. The crew includes a Canadian astronaut whose wife is expecting while he’s in orbit, and their journey marked several notable firsts and milestones.
SpaceX launched the quartet for NASA after standing down for three weeks to repair a fuel leak in the spacecraft. Thick clouds hovered over Cape Canaveral for much of the morning, raising concern about the countdown, but conditions improved enough for a safe liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission is the 13th crewed flight SpaceX has flown for NASA, not counting a 2020 test mission.
The flight is expected to reach the space station in about eight hours, one of the fastest transits yet for the company. The rapid trip means the astronauts should arrive well before bedtime, minimizing time spent in the cramped Dragon capsule and allowing a quick handover with the crew already on the station.
Commanding the mission is Jessica Watkins, a geologist and former Curiosity rover team member who previously spent an extended period aboard the station in 2022. With this launch, Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew into orbit. After achieving orbit she radioed back, “Thanks for an amazing ride.” Watkins and her crew embraced their Crew-13 designation, a nod to the Apollo 13 mission; their mission patch and other touches pay tribute to the resilience shown during that 1970 flight.
Joining Watkins are three crewmates making their first trip to space: NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, a retired U.S. Marine; Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former Russian submariner. Kutryk is slated to replace one of four station residents who have been aboard since February.
Kutryk’s departure carries a personal milestone: his wife, Heather, is due to give birth to their third child in late November while he is on the mission. If timing holds, Kutryk will become the fourth man to become a father while in orbit. The Canadian Space Agency said it will provide extensive support to the family during the birth and aims to keep him connected as much as possible. NASA has facilitated similar moments in the past, including arranging a radio link in 2004 so astronaut Mike Fincke could speak with his wife during labor, and in 2009 when Randy Bresnik dialed into his wife’s delivery room from orbit.
The crew expressed gratitude and a sense of luck ahead of the flight. “We feel like some of the luckiest people in the world,” Kutryk said prior to liftoff. To underscore their Crew-13 identity and the spirit they wanted to carry with them, the four rode to the launch pad in black Teslas sporting license plates that read “Lucky 13.”
The international mix of astronauts reflects the cooperative nature of the space station program. Watkins’ leadership highlights NASA’s growing diversity in mission commanders, while Kutryk’s presence underscores Canada’s ongoing contributions to human spaceflight. Sergey Teteryatnikov brings Russian naval experience to the mission, and Delaney adds a military background from the U.S. Marine Corps.
Once aboard the station, the crew will take over ongoing scientific experiments, maintenance tasks and technology demonstrations. Long-duration missions like this one allow researchers to study how the human body adapts to microgravity, test hardware for future deep-space missions, and run a steady stream of experiments that require the unique conditions of low Earth orbit. The arriving astronauts will also support spacewalks, robotic operations and cargo transfers as part of routine station operations.
The arrival timeline—about eight hours after liftoff—is part of an evolution in crew transport that has trimmed travel time dramatically compared with earlier flights that took two days or more. Faster rendezvous sequences reduce crew fatigue and logistical complexity; when everything works as planned, they make station handovers smoother and more efficient.
Spaceflight is inherently risky, but the mission proceeded without incident after the earlier fuel-system fix. The patchwork of international partners, operational experience, and decades of lessons learned from previous missions all contribute to mission safety and success. The Crew-13 team emphasized honoring that legacy. “We really wanted to honor their legacy, honor their resilience and their grit, and bring a little bit of that with us,” Watkins said, referencing the Apollo 13 crew.
As the new quartet begins its half-year stay, ground teams will monitor both mission operations and crew well-being. Family connections—like Kutryk’s impending fatherhood—are part of the human side of long missions, and agencies typically provide psychological, technical and logistical support so astronauts can stay involved with life on Earth while they conduct vital work in space.
This flight continues a steady cadence of crewed missions to the space station, each one contributing to scientific knowledge, international cooperation and the advancement of technologies that may one day carry humans farther into the solar system.
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