SpaceX Crew-13 mission's Crew Dragon Grace successfully docked to the forward-facing port of the International Space Station (ISS)'s Harmony module, at 2305 UTC on Thursday (Oct. 1), completing the fastest U.S. spaceflight to the station in history. Grace, launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1510 UTC, reached the ISS in just 7 hours and 55 minutes, breaking the previous record by approximately five hours.

The previous record was 12 hours and 33 minutes, set in November 2024 by SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule during the robotic CRS-31 resupply flight. The fastest that astronauts had made the trip in a U.S. vehicle was 14 hours and 43 minutes, which was achieved by the Crew-11 mission in August 2025.

"We got lucky this time," Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA science and Dragon programs at SpaceX, said during Crew-13's post-launch press conference today.

"The space station was in an opportune spot in space, and the orbital mechanics, the physics of it all, worked out for it to be the shortest launch-to-docking time we've had to date," she said, adding that "this is close to the fastest it could be."

Crew-13 didn't set the overall speed record to the ISS, however — not even close. In May 2020, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three astronauts reached the orbiting lab just 3 hours and 3 minutes after lifting off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz caught up to the ISS after just two orbits of Earth.

The Soyuz isn't faster or more powerful than a cargo or crew-carrying Dragon capsule. Rather, the difference in chase-down times comes down primarily to choices made by mission controllers; Russia tends to target more aggressive "fast-track" trajectories.

Crew-13 mission crew consists of mission Commander and NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, mission pilot and NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, mission pilot and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. They joined the Expedition 75 core crew and the departing SpaceX Crew-12 astronauts, temporarily raising the orbital station's population to 11.

Crew-13 astronauts' mission includes conducting scientific research on stem-cell derived tissues for Parkinson’s and heart disease, testing zero-g crop production, and performing routine station maintenance.

The new crew will relieve the four astronauts of Crew-12 mission, which launched in mid-February. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, the ESA's Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, will return to Earth in their Crew Dragon capsule this month, according to NASA officials.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launched its Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 1832 UTC on Thursday (Oct. 1), deploying 130 payloads into a sun-synchronous orbit. The mission’s primary payload was a prototype satellite for Google’s Project Suncatcher, designed to test the resilience of Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) against space radiation and thermal challenges.

About 8 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage booster, B1082 came back to Vandenberg for a landing, completing its 25th flight to date. Meanwhile the rocket's upper stage powered its way to low Earth orbit (LEO), where it deployed the 130 payloads over a roughly 11-minute window starting about 54.5 minutes after liftoff, and bringing the total count for SpaceX’s Rideshare program to over 1,800 payloads.

The highest-profile payload on Transporter-18, is a pathfinder spacecraft for Project Suncatcher, the AI constellation that Google plans to build and operate in LEO, which explores scalable machine learning infrastructure.

This satellite will help the project team determine how TPUs — Google chips that are core Suncatcher hardware — perform in the space environment. Of particular importance are how the TPUs withstand space radiation, and how efficiently the heat they generate is dissipated.

Another company with AI data center ambitions flew on Transporter-18 as well: Cowboy Space put its Reason-1 satellite on the Falcon 9.

"Its job is to prove out power beaming: using a high-power laser to transfer energy from low Earth orbit to a receiver on the ground," Cowboy Space said of Reason-1 in a Sept. 28 X post. "If you want to build data centers in space, you have to master the optical systems between orbit and Earth. This is where that journey begins."

Transporter-18 also launched Starfish Space's first Otter servicing satellite.

"This is a big moment for Starfish Space," the Washington-based company said via X on Sept. 24. "We've spent years developing, iterating, and proving out the key technologies required for affordable, available satellite servicing. Now we’re launching Otters, putting our satellite servicing vehicles to work for customers in orbit."

The rest of the 130 payloads were a diverse lot, consisting of "cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads and two spacecraft with reentry vehicles and four orbital transfer vehicles carrying 41 of those payloads to be deployed at a later time," SpaceX wrote in its Transporter-18 mission description. The manifest included Carbon Mapper’s Tanager-2 satellites for methane monitoring, and spacecraft from Varda Space Industries featuring reentry vehicles.

Transporter-18 was part of a very busy day for SpaceX. The company also launched the Crew-13 astronaut mission for NASA earlier, and it aims to launch the NROL-97 flight for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office later.

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Dragon 'Grace' Spacecraft on SpaceX Falcon 9 launched Crew Dragon 'Grace' on the Crew-13 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 1510 UTC on Thursday (Oct. 1) carrying NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to the International Space Station (ISS). This will be the fastest Crew Dragon flight ever to the orbiting lab, expected to dock with the ISS in about 8 hours.

As planned, about 2.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage booster, B1101, separated from the second stage which in short succession, began executing its orbital insertion burn. B1101 performed a simultaneous boostback burn to reset its trajectory for a return and touchdown at landing zone(LZ-40). An entry and landing burn followed, with a successful touchdown about 7 minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff. This was the third launch and recovery of B1101.

Their trip to LEO took less than 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile the Falcon 9 second-stage engine burn ended about a minute later, wrapping up an orbital insertion maneuver that lasted roughly six minutes. The trip to low earth orbit(LEO) took less than 10 minutes from liftoff. Crew Dragon Grace was released another minute afterward to begin its 8-hour journey to the ISS.

"Thanks for an amazing ride," Mission Commander Watkins told Mission Control shortly after that milestone was reached.

"They say that courage is grace under pressure, and the incredible teams that got us to orbit today truly embody that," she added. "Thank you for your hard work, perseverance, and courageous commitment to ensuring Grace was ready and safe to fly. We carry with us on this journey all of you who have supported us along the way, and we hope to make you proud."

Watkins became the first NASA astronaut to fly twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, having previously served on Crew-4 in 2022. Mission pilots Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk, and Sergey Teteryatnikov are making their first spaceflights.

Typical Crew Dragon missions take 15 to 24 hours to catch up to the space station. For comparison, Russian launch profiles deliver the Soyuz crew capsule to the ISS anywhere between three hours to two days after liftoff. Grace will only have about 7 hours, 50 minutes on orbit before docking with the ISS, setting a new speed record for an American spacecraft.

"We got lucky this time," Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA science and dragon programs at SpaceX, said in the post-launch briefing. "The space station was in an opportune spot in space, and the orbital mechanics, the physics of it all, worked out for it to be the the shortest launch to docking time we've had to date."

The crew will join the ISS for a six-month mission as part of Expedition 75, conducting scientific research, technology demonstrations, and station maintenance. Many of their research will focus on astronaut health and the long-term effects of microgravity on the human body. Other experiments on the Crew-13 docket include studies into stem-cell derived tissues to treat Parkinson's and heart disease, as well as the harvesting of produce in zero-g.

"It was an incredible launch," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said. "This is an absolutely great start to Crew 13. We will be watching very closely, cheering them on throughout their great expedition."

The astronauts' time aboard the ISS is expected to wrap up sometime next year, around February or March, when SpaceX launches NASA's Crew-14 astronauts to replace them. Similarly, Crew-13 will relieve the four Crew-12 astronauts. Crew-13's arrival will signal the beginning of departure preparations for the members of Crew-12, who launched to the ISS about 7.5 months ago — a slightly longer stay than originally anticipated.

Crew-12 was expected to return to Earth last month, but a delay in Crew-13 extended their mission by a few weeks. An oxidizer leak in Grace's propulsion system was discovered in August, prompting NASA and SpaceX to allot more time for prelaunch checkouts and tests.

Grace is the fifth and final Crew Dragon built by SpaceX; it previously flew the private Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) in summer 2025.