The launch
SpaceX and NASA are back at it again. On Thursday morning, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending the Crew-13 mission on its way to the International Space Station. The squad—commanded by Jessica Watkins, along with pilot Luke Delaney, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk—made the trek in about eight hours, successfully docking at the station’s forward port around 7 p.m. ET.
The space-dad struggle
Real talk: this mission is hitting different for Joshua Kutryk. While he’s up there doing science, his wife Heather is back home expecting their third child around Thanksgiving. That’s two months into his mission, making them the fourth couple in history to have a baby born while a parent is literally off-planet. Before taking off, Kutryk shared on X that leaving his family was the "hardest thing I've ever done."
Meet the crew
Watkins is an old pro who flew a Crew Dragon back in 2022, but the rest of the crew are rookies. Delaney and Kutryk are both former military test pilots, and Teteryatnikov brings experience from the Russian submarine force. They were greeted with hugs by the seven astronauts already living on the station, who are currently wrapping up their own long-haul missions.
Why it matters
The station remains a massive flex for human collaboration. Even with all the political noise between the U.S. and Canada lately, the Canadian Space Agency is still a key player in the program. As Kutryk put it, the ISS is a "beacon" for what humanity can achieve when we actually work together. The incoming crew will spend the next few days in a "crew handover" before the previous team heads back to Earth on October 6, leaving the new squad to handle upcoming supply drops and solar array upgrades.
