New Crew Capsule Docks with International Space Station

A new crew of four astronauts docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, where they will reside for approximately six months.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew-13 mission launched at 11:10 a.m. local time (15:10 UTC) from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The new station crew was originally scheduled to arrive in mid-September, but the launch was delayed due to a leak on the Dragon spacecraft.

Canadian astronaut Josh Cassada will have an additional reason to look forward to his return to Earth after six months, as his wife is expected to give birth during his time in space.

Despite the collapse of many international cooperation agreements following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the United States has continued to cooperate with Russia regarding the International Space Station.

The ISS, which has been continuously inhabited for the past quarter-century, is scheduled to be deorbited in 2030, with its controlled re-entry planned to take place over one of Earth’s oceans.