Stories
SpaceX Falcon 9 Lands After Launching NASA's Crew-13 to ISS, Sets Docking Record
N
News18•02-10-2026, 01:15
SpaceX Falcon 9 Lands After Launching NASA's Crew-13 to ISS, Sets Docking Record
- •SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 first-stage booster at Landing Zone 40 after launching the Dragon spacecraft with NASA's Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
- •The Crew-13 mission includes NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.
- •The mission blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, with the ISS passing directly over the launch pad shortly after liftoff.
- •Crew-13 aims for the fastest launch-to-docking transit in ISS history, targeting docking at the Harmony module's space-facing port approximately 7 hours and 50 minutes after launch.
- •The astronauts will conduct research on human stem cell-derived tissues, crop production, blood-flow abnormalities in microgravity, and test a new in-flight diagnostic device.
Key Questions Answered
The Crew-13 mission includes NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.
The crew will use microgravity to develop human stem cell-derived tissues for personalized medicine and disease modeling, study crop production with a new plant-growth system, and test a new in-flight diagnostic device.
Crew-13 is targeting a transit that will mark the single fastest launch-to-docking maneuver in the history of the International Space Station, taking approximately 7 hours and 50 minutes.
