Eleven people are living on the International Space Station after the SpaceX’s Crew-13 e arrived Oct. 1, among them Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, on what the NASA called a record-setting 7-hour, 55-minute Dragon flight from Florida.
SpaceX’s Crew-13 Dragon, named Grace, lifted off at 11:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and docked at 7:05 p.m. at the forward-facing port of the Harmony module, according to the NASA-SpaceX webcast. The hatch opened at 9:19 p.m., NASA’s blog said. Grace previously flew on the private Axiom Mission 4 in summer 2025.
Kutryk flew with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins, the commander, and Luke Delaney, the pilot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, and they joined the Expedition 75 crew already aboard: NASA astronaut Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, plus the four members of Crew-12.
Handover and departure
Crew-12 — NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — could begin the trip home as early as Monday, Oct. 5, NASA said, depending on weather off the California coast. NASA and SpaceX planned more departure weather briefings over the weekend, and NASA will issue an advisory for the return after them.
The Crew-13 astronauts slept in Friday and spent the rest of the day relaxing, NASA said. Today they are unpacking Dragon, moving standard safety gear into their spacecraft and going over emergency roles and responsibilities. On Sunday, Oct. 4, Meir will hand command of the station to Dubrov at a change-of-command and farewell ceremony beginning at 10:20 a.m. EDT, streamed on NASA’s live channel.
Crew-12 has been packing cargo, configuring Dragon’s systems and testing pressure suits for the return. Six spacecraft are now attached to the station: both Crew Dragons, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo ship, the Soyuz MS-29 crew ship and the Progress 95 and 96 resupply ships.
Canadian connection
Kutryk’s first space flight will last about six months. It is the agency’s fourth long-duration station mission and its first under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said the mission “will showcase Canadian expertise on the world stage, inspire the next generation of innovators, and strengthen a sector that is strategic to our economy and national interests.”
Shortly after docking, with the crew still in their suits, Kutryk answered Menon’s welcome from the station on behalf of the Crew-13 astronauts. “There’s something profound about being trusted with the responsibility to operate this station,” he said, calling it “humanity’s one and only outpost in space.” He closed with: “It’s an absolute honor to be here.”
Kutryk will test a new physical-training protocol for astronauts and take part in Canadian experiments on mental health, bone density, cardiorespiratory health, perception of orientation, anemia and ocular rigidity, a measure of the eye’s stiffness. SpaceQ’s reports from docking day and launch day provided detail more from Kutryk and the CSA, and the Crew-13 hub collects the rest of our coverage.
Science and technology experiments
On Sept. 25, Meir collected blood samples that were spun in a centrifuge and frozen for research on space-caused bone loss, which looks similar to osteoporosis on Earth. Adenot gave saliva samples for RelaxPro, a study of how stress, sleep patterns and the immune system change in spaceflight, using mindfulness exercises. She also tested a headset and hand controllers for the Manual Piloting study of how microgravity affects flying a spacecraft. The same day, the Crew-12 quartet joined flight controllers for a simulation of the atmospheric reentry procedures.
On Sept. 28, Meir scanned Menon’s jugular vein with the Ultrasound 3 device and measured his blood pressure for the Venous Flow investigation, while Hathaway spun blood samples in a centrifuge to check red blood cell counts, helping doctors judge how well blood delivers oxygen in microgravity. Meir also tried specialized suits meant to help returning crew adjust to gravity after nearly eight months in space by keeping blood pressure in the brain steady. Adenot tested ARED Kinematics computer hardware, which is used to tune astronaut workouts, in the Tranquility module and guided Menon through exercise on the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D) in the Columbus module. Dubrov explored high-purity semiconductor crystals with a high-temperature furnace in the Nauka module, NASA’s Sept. 28 update said.
The four Crew-12 members spent Sept. 29 packing and preparing Dragon. Meir and Hathaway configured its seats and reorganized emergency gear, Hathaway replaced a water dispenser in the Unity module, and Fedyaev transferred and filtered water between tanks in the Roscosmos modules. Three of the returning crew took part in a standard debrief with mission control, while Dubrov and Kikina installed a gas analyzer in the Zvezda service module. The next day Fedyaev tested a lower-body negative pressure suit, which pulls fluids that shift toward the head in orbit back toward the feet, and Kikina and Dubrov wore arm, wrist and finger cuffs that measure blood pressure to study how microgravity affects the smallest blood vessels, NASA’s Sept. 30 update said.
Looking ahead
SpaceX’s 35th resupply mission, SpaceX-35, is targeted to launch no earlier than Oct. 13. It will carry the final sets of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSA), which astronauts will install during future spacewalks to complete the station’s power upgrade, NASA said.
Cygnus XL, which arrived April 13, is due to leave in October. NASA said it will be filled with disposal cargo, unberthed and burn up on reentry. Before that, an 18-minute reboost burn on Sept. 25 raised the station’s orbit to about 427 by 413 kilometres (265.5 by 256.8 miles) at its high and low points, setting up the timing for Crew-13’s launch.