SpaceX launches Crew-13; Crew-12 heads home this week

SpaceX launched its Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station on Thursday. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:10 am EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Dragon capsule, named Grace, docked about eight hours later. That was the fastest US crewed trip to the station. The crew is led by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins. She became the first Black woman to command a crew to orbit. It is her second spaceflight after Crew-4 in 2022. Pilot Luke Delaney is a retired US Marine on his first flight. Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency is the first Canadian on a Commercial Crew mission. Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov is a former submariner. The launch was delayed three weeks to fix a fuel system leak on the Dragon. Crew-13 joins Expedition 75 for about six months. They will take over from Crew-12. That crew includes Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev. After a handover, Crew-12 will return to Earth this week.
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