HOUSTON, Texas — NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-13 mission reached the International Space Station Thursday evening in record time, bringing four astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The Dragon spacecraft arrived at the ISS Thursday evening. Crew members opened the spacecraft’s hatch about two hours later and joined the station’s existing crew.
“It’s amazing and kind of ironic to think that it’s such a short trip to get here because the journey to get here has been long,” Crew-13 Commander Jessica Watkins said from the ISS.
Crew-13 includes Watkins and pilot Luke Delaney, both from NASA, along with mission specialists Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Roscosmos.
The mission operates under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which partners with private space companies such as SpaceX to transport NASA-trained astronauts and international partners to the ISS.
Crew-12 prepares to return to Earth
NASA and SpaceX now prepare for Crew-12’s return after the astronauts spent months aboard the ISS.
Crew-12 has remained at the station since February. NASA could bring the crew back to Earth as soon as Monday, Oct. 5, depending on weather conditions.
The crew includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Crew-12 will formally transfer its mission responsibilities to Crew-13 on Sunday. Crew-12 Commander Jessica Meir will also hand over command of the ISS to Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov, whose crew arrived at the station in July.
Dana Weigel, who manages NASA’s low Earth orbit missions, said Thursday that initial inspections of the spacecraft and equipment Crew-12 will bring back to Earth went well.
Crew-12 completes research in orbit
During their mission, Crew-12 conducted research on pneumonia-causing bacteria, blood flow during spaceflight and the production of intravenous fluids in space, among other projects.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program uses commercial spacecraft to support regular crew rotations to the ISS. SpaceX and Boeing each hold multibillion-dollar contracts with NASA under the program.