SpaceX's Crew-13 mission for NASA arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on October 1, 2026, at 7:05 p.m. EDT, completing the journey just 7 hours and 55 minutes after launch from Florida's Space Coast. This marks the fastest time for an American spacecraft to reach the ISS, according to NASA officials.
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The Crew-13 Dragon capsule, named Grace, broke the previous record of 12 hours and 33 minutes set by SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule during the CRS-31 resupply flight in November 2024. The previous fastest crewed mission time was 14 hours and 43 minutes, achieved by the Crew-11 mission in August 2025. Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA science and Dragon programs at SpaceX, remarked during a post-launch press conference that favorable orbital positioning allowed for this record-breaking docking time, stating, "this is close to the fastest it could be."
Despite setting a new American record, Crew-13 did not break the overall speed record for reaching the ISS. In May 2020, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft managed to dock with the station just 3 hours and 3 minutes after its launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This difference in timing is largely due to mission control strategies, with Russian missions often opting for more aggressive trajectories.
Crew-13 transported four astronauts to the ISS: NASA's Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk from the Canadian Space Agency, and Sergey Teteryatnikov from Russia's Roscosmos. They will spend the next six months at the station, replacing the Crew-12 astronauts who launched in mid-February. The Crew-12 team, which includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA's Sophie Adenot, and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, may return to Earth as soon as October 5, 2026, according to NASA.