Four crew members aboard NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission arrived at the International Space Station on Oct. 1, docking with the orbiting laboratory following a 7-hour, 55-minute flight from Florida aboard a Dragon spacecraft. The docking temporarily brings the number of people living and working aboard the station to 11.
The newly arrived mission includes NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. Their arrival begins a brief handover period with the station's departing crew.
On Saturday, Oct. 3, Crew-13 is scheduled to unpack Dragon, transfer standard safety gear into the station, and discuss emergency roles.
Change of Command and Crew-12 Departure
The transition of station responsibilities continues Sunday, Oct. 4, with a formal change of command ceremony scheduled to begin at 10:20 a.m. EDT. During the ceremony, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir will hand over command of the space station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov.
Meir will soon return to Earth alongside her Crew-12 crewmates: Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrey Fedyaev. According to NASA, Crew-12 could depart the space station for Earth as early as Monday, Oct. 5, weather permitting.
Ahead of the planned return, NASA and SpaceX are monitoring weather conditions off the California coast.
