NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission has reached the International Space Station after lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Oct. 1.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:10 a.m. ET. On board were NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.
The four astronauts are expected to live and work aboard the orbital outpost for several months. Their first days at the station will include a handover period with the outgoing Crew-12 astronauts as the new arrivals become familiar with station operations.
NASA expects Crew-12 to depart the station Oct. 5 aboard another Dragon capsule, with a water landing planned near California.
Crew-13’s launch was the first of three SpaceX launches conducted within about 13 hours on Oct. 1. The other two missions launched from California and from nearby Kennedy Space Center in Florida.