Four astronauts pulled up at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday after launching on an eight-hour express that set a US speed record, and that created further history with the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit.
SpaceX launched 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 skies cleared enough to allow a safe liftoff from Cape Canaveral at ۱۱.۱۰am (۱۵۱۰ GMT).
Seven hours and ۵۵ minutes later, the SpaceX Dragon “Grace” capsule docked at an ISS port, setting a record for the fastest trip by a US spacecraft to the outpost.
In a live broadcast on Nasa TV, the capsule appeared to glide gently toward a stationary ISS as both hurtled through space at about ۱۷,۵۰۰mph (۲۸,۱۰۰ km/h).
The new arrivals – Americans Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Joshua Kutryk, and Russian Sergey Teteryatnikov – floated into the space station through a pressurized vestibule and addressed colleagues on Earth late Thursday.
“We are so excited to be here. This is truly a special place,” Watkins said on the Nasa livestream. “It’s amazing and kind of ironic to think that it’s such a short trip to get here because the journey to get here has been long.”
Canadian Kutryk, whose wife will give birth while he’s away, said it “feels really good” to represent his country in space, adding he was “looking forward to a good mission after some sleep. That’s what I’m gonna go do next”.
The duration of the journey depends greatly on the distance between the ISS and the spacecraft at the time of launch. It took more than ۳۰ hours for the last crew that launched from American soil to reach the station.
With the late-morning launch, 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 after a lengthy stay in ۲۰۲۲.
“Thanks for an amazing ride,” Watkins radioed after liftoff.
Although their stay at the ISS will last six months, the flight there was the quickest yet not only for Elon Musk’s company, but any American entity, including Nasa.
Aside from Watkins, the other astronauts are newcomers to space: Delaney is a retired marine; Kutryk is a colonel in the Royal Canadian air force; and Teteryatnikov, a former submariner. They will replace four astronauts who have been living at the orbiting laboratory since February.
This was the ۱۳th crew launched by SpaceX for Nasa, not counting ۲۰۲۰’s test flight. The Crew-۱۳ designation in their mission patch pays homage to Apollo ۱۳, the harrowing ۱۹۷۰ moonshot that ended with the astronauts’ safe return.
References to the number ۱۳ abounded Thursday. Watkins and her crew rode to the launch pad in black Teslas bearing plates that read “Lucky ۱۳”. They also carried up a small crocheted golden dragon named Lucky with a four-leaf clover around its neck.
“We figured it wouldn’t hurt to bring a little of our own luck just in case, but clearly we don’t need it,” Watkins said from orbit, noting they were “four of the luckiest humans on or off planet Earth”.
Heather Kutryk will give birth while her husband is orbiting Earth, making him the fourth man to become a father while doing so. 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 would do its best to keep Kutryk looped in to his family. The Canadian Space Agency also promised to support the family.
In ۲۰۰۴, Nasa provided a radio link between space station astronaut Mike Fincke and his wife’s delivery room during the birth of their daughter. Five years later, Randy Bresnik, commander of next year’s Artemis III mission, dialed in to his wife’s hospital from orbit.
The happy news traveled more slowly for Austrian astronaut Franz Viehböck. His daughter was born a few hours after he launched to the Soviet Union’s Mir space station in ۱۹۹۱. He was not informed until the next day.
Three hours after Crew-۱۳ blasted off, SpaceX launched a Falcon rocket from California with more than ۱۰۰ mini satellites. Another Falcon was set to soar late Thursday night from Florida, with a classified satellite for the national reconnaissance office. All this comes the same week the company’s massive Starship reached orbit for the first time.
