A SpaceX spacecraft carrying four astronauts docked with the International Space Station (ISS) last night after an eight-hour journey, setting a speed record.
SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for the U.S. space agency NASA after a three-week delay to repair a fuel system leak on the Dragon capsule. Thick clouds threatened to halt the launch yesterday morning, but the skies cleared, allowing for a safe liftoff.
The flight to the ISS was the fastest ever conducted by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, as well as by any American entity, including the U.S. space agency NASA. The convenient position of the space station at the time of launch enabled the rapid transit. The astronauts will remain on the Station for six months.
Watkins, a geologist who worked with NASA on sending the Curiosity spacecraft to Mars ten years ago, became the first Black woman to command a crew in orbit. This is her second trip to the ISS after an extended stay in 2022.
The others are Luke Delaney from the U.S. space agency NASA, a retired Marine, Canadian Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and Russian Sergei Teteriatnikov. They will replace four astronauts who have lived in this orbiting laboratory since February.
This was SpaceX’s 13th crewed spacecraft launch for NASA, not counting the test flight in 2020.
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