NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 Mission Launched by Former Caltech Postdoc Jessica Watkins

NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission successfully launched to the International Space Station this morning, commanded by Jessica Watkins, a former Caltech postdoc and NASA astronaut. The crew of four will engage in research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance tasks during their mission.

This marks the second flight to the space station for Watkins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. Raised in Lafayette, Colorado, she holds an undergraduate degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from UCLA. As a planetary geologist, Watkins has studied the Martian surface and was part of the Curiosity rover science team managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

At Caltech, she worked under John Grotzinger, the Harold Brown Professor of Geology and a former project scientist for the Curiosity Rover. Watkins first traveled to the space station on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission in 2022, where she spent a total of 170 days in orbit, encompassing Expeditions 67 and 68. With this launch, she becomes the first NASA astronaut to fly twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.