SpaceX Launches Crew 13 to Space Station, Including Astronaut Set to Miss Third Child’s Birth
SpaceX launches Crew 13 to the ISS with an astronaut missing his third child's birth. Explore mission details and crew highlights.
POLICY WIRE — Washington, D.C. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched four astronauts toward the International Space Station on Thursday, including a Canadian crew member whose wife is set to give birth to their third child while he is in orbit.
The mission, designated Crew 13, saw Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Sergey Teteryatnikov, and Joshua Kutryk lift off from Cape Canaveral at 11:10 a.m. EDT. The flight was delayed from September due to a valve replacement in the Crew Dragon’s propulsion system.
Kutryk, who will be away for six months, is expecting his third child around Thanksgiving. His wife, Heather, plans to give birth during his mission, making them the fourth couple in space history to have a child while one parent is in space. He shared that leaving his family is the hardest decision he has ever made.
Watkins, a geologist with a Ph.D., previously flew aboard a Crew Dragon in 2022. Delaney and Kutryk are both former military test pilots, while Teteryatnikov served in the Russian submarine force before becoming a cosmonaut. Kutryk, the 17th Canadian in space, emphasized the importance of international collaboration in space exploration.
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The Falcon 9’s first stage successfully returned to Earth, while the Crew Dragon capsule is expected to reach the ISS in just eight hours—a record time. The spacecraft will dock at the Harmony module at 7 p.m. EDT.
Crew 12, the current station crew, will soon return to Earth after a 237-day mission. They will hand over operations to Crew 13 before departing on October 5. Meanwhile, a new cargo mission is scheduled for October 13, bringing essential supplies and solar arrays to upgrade the station’s power system.
Research remains a key focus of the mission, with experiments aimed at improving medical treatments, studying crop growth in microgravity, and testing health monitoring technologies. NASA officials highlighted the significance of these studies for future long-duration space missions.
Crew 13 members expressed excitement about the upcoming challenges, from conducting spacewalks to advancing scientific research. It’s going to be a great time, said Delaney, as the team prepares to integrate into the ISS crew and continue vital work in low-Earth orbit.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
