Four astronauts docked at the International Space Station at 7:05pm EDT Thursday, less than eight hours after lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
By the numbers: Liftoff came at 11:10am EDT from Space Launch Complex 40, and Dragon reached the Harmony module’s forward port 7 hours and 55 minutes later.
- Aboard were NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. They join the Expedition 75 crew already aboard the station.
The big picture: “Crew-13 is another demonstration of America’s unmatched capability in human spaceflight and the strength of our commercial partnerships,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said.
Zoom in: The crew will use microgravity to produce human stem cell derived tissues for disease modelling and drug testing, and will trial a mostly autonomous plant growth system.
Why it matters: NASA says each station mission adds to its blueprint for exploration and sharpens the tools it will take forward to the Moon and Mars, and SpaceX flew the approach from its Hawthorne control centre.
