Four astronauts reached the International Space Station on Thursday after an eight-hour journey that set a record for the fastest US flight to the orbiting laboratory.
The crew, launched by SpaceX for NASA, included commander Jessica Watkins, who became the first Black woman to lead a crew into orbit. The mission had been delayed for three weeks while engineers repaired a leaking fuel system on the Dragon capsule.
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Thick clouds had threatened to postpone the launch again, hanging over Cape Canaveral throughout the morning. But conditions improved enough for the Falcon 9 rocket to lift off safely late in the morning.
The astronauts will spend roughly six months aboard the space station, although their trip there was far shorter than usual. The eight-hour transit was the quickest journey to the station by SpaceX or any other US operator, including NASA, helped by the station's position relative to the launch site.
"Thanks for an amazing ride," Watkins radioed after liftoff.
Watkins, a geologist who previously worked with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, is returning to the space station after spending an extended period there in 2022.
The other three astronauts are making their first trips to space: NASA's Luke Delaney, a retired Marine; Canada's Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Russia's Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner.
They will replace four astronauts who have been aboard the station since February.
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The mission is the 13th crewed flight SpaceX has launched for NASA, excluding the company's 2020 crewed test flight. The astronauts have embraced the Crew-13 designation, incorporating references to Apollo 13 into their mission patch. That 1970 lunar mission was forced to abandon its planned moon landing but ended with all three astronauts returning safely to Earth.
The number 13 followed the crew throughout launch day. The astronauts travelled to the launch pad in black Teslas with licence plates reading "Lucky 13". They also carried a small crocheted golden dragon called Lucky, complete with a four-leaf clover around its neck.
"We figured it wouldn't hurt to bring a little of our own luck just in case, but clearly we don't need it," Watkins said from orbit, adding that they were "four of the luckiest humans on or off planet Earth."
For Kutryk, the six-month mission will unfold alongside a major event back home. His wife, Heather, is expected to give birth to their third child in late November, making him the fourth man to become a father while orbiting Earth.
The Canadian Space Agency has said it will provide support to the family while Kutryk is in space. NASA officials also said they would make every effort to keep him connected to events at home.
"A lot of life-changing things can happen over six months," NASA manager Dana Weigel said before the launch, adding that the agency would do its best to keep Kutryk looped in to his family.
NASA has previously helped astronauts stay connected during childbirth. In 2004, the agency arranged a radio link between space station astronaut Mike Fincke and his wife's delivery room when their daughter was born. In 2009, Randy Bresnik, who is set to command next year's Artemis III mission, called his wife's hospital from orbit.
Austrian astronaut Franz Viehbock had a different experience in 1991. His daughter was born just hours after he launched toward the Soviet Union's Mir space station, but he did not learn about the birth until the following day.
SpaceX's busy day continued after Crew-13 reached orbit. About three hours after the crew's launch, another SpaceX Falcon rocket lifted off from California carrying more than 100 small satellites. A separate Falcon launch from Florida, carrying a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, was scheduled for later Thursday night.
The launches came in the same week that SpaceX's giant Starship reached orbit for the first time, adding to an unusually active stretch for the company.
