The Crew-13 mission saw a Falcon 9 rocket carry four people into the sky from Florida, heading toward the International Space Station. Weather concerns over thunderstorms and strong winds did not stop the launch from going ahead.
The vehicle launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and ascended northeastward across the Atlantic Ocean. The capsule will need approximately eight hours to arrive at and hook up with the station. The four people aboard will live and work there for up to six months before returning to Earth.
The Crew
Jessica Watkins is a geologist who has traveled to space twice. On her second trip, she flew to the station aboard the Crew-4 mission in 2022, where she spent 170 days. As the first Black woman to serve on the station, she also holds the record for the most time in space among Black women.
Luke Delaney, a naval aviator on his first flight, hails from DeBary, Fla., roughly 50 miles from the Space Coast. The region was where he grew up, watching shuttle launches as a boy. Now, he says he’s eager to view the launch from a fresh angle.
Deltona High School, where Delaney attended, declared Thursday “Luke Delaney Day” as students gathered outside to watch him take off.
The Mission Patch
This mission carries the same name as a well-known NASA mission: Apollo 13. An explosion occurred 55 hours into that mission in 1970, which crippled the spacecraft, and NASA rushed to save the crew.
The Crew-13 astronauts do not believe in luck. Instead, they honored the Apollo 13 mission by putting its memory into their patch, recalling the ingenuity and bravery that brought that crew safely home.
Dana Weigel, a NASA official, said the patch reflects what the agency can achieve under pressure. “I think it really represents what we can do when we’re faced with extremely challenging and dire circumstances,” she said. “I give the crew a lot of credit for giving the nod to Apollo 13 and kind of giving credit to that and representing that in the mission patch that they chose.”
What They Will Do
The team will keep the station running while carrying out experiments, with some of those tests focused directly on the crew themselves. Among their tasks is a stem cell study that might aid treatment for Parkinson’s disease, plus work on growing crops in space and testing new gear for tracking the health of people living aboard the station.
A leak of oxidizer on the Dragon capsule during processing forced NASA and SpaceX to push the launch from mid-September. The delay came in August when the problem was discovered.
Lori Glaze, NASA’s head of human spaceflight, said the troubleshooting took significant effort. “It took a lot of effort, time, [and] many, many hours in determined troubleshooting to put us on the right path for launch,” she said.
Back From Orbit
The Crew-13 mission will take over for the Crew-12 team, whose members arrived at the station back in February. That crew will come home next week, splashing down off the coast of Southern California.
This is SpaceX’s 13th operational mission for NASA, and 14th total for the agency. (SpaceX launched a test flight carrying two astronauts to the station in 2020.) The company has also flown private missions, both to the station and orbital flights. NASA’s current administrator, Jared Isaacman, funded and flew two of those missions before taking the agency’s top job.
The Delay
A leak of oxidizer was discovered on the Dragon capsule during processing, which delayed the launch from mid-September. NASA and SpaceX then devoted many hours to troubleshooting the problem before settling on a new launch date.
Key Facts
- Launch: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
- Rocket: Falcon 9
- Mission: NASA’s Crew-13
- Capsule: Grace (fifth and final Dragon spacecraft built by SpaceX)
- Previous mission: Watkins flew on Crew-4 in 2022
- Return: Next week, off the coast of Southern California
- Mission count: 13th operational for NASA, 14th total
The launch went ahead despite weather worries, the crew honors Apollo 13’s memory without superstition, and the capsule’s name ‘Grace’ ties into the mission’s patch symbolism.
Source material: “New space station crew launches from Florida on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule,” NPR.
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