SpaceX Launches NASA Crew-13 in Historic Quickest US ISS Flight

NASA astronauts Commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, mission specialist Joshua Kutryk, and cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on October 2, 2026. The Dragon capsule named Grace docked with the International Space Station in just seven hours and 55 minutes, setting a new record for the fastest US flight to the station by any American entity. While previous US flights took over 30 hours, this mission beat only an October 2020 Russian Soyuz spacecraft that arrived in slightly more than three hours. The crew's arrival was initially delayed due to a valve leak aboard the Dragon capsule before their successful launch.