SpaceX Launches Crew 13 to ISS; Astronaut to Miss Birth of Third Child

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying a four-person crew bound for the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-month residency. Among the crew is Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, who will be away when his wife Heather gives birth to their third child around Thanksgiving.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, designated Crew 13, lifted off from pad 40 at 11:10 a.m. EDT. The flight is led by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, accompanied by pilot Luke Delaney, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, and Kutryk. The launch was originally scheduled for mid-September but was postponed to replace a valve in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.

Kutryk and his wife already have two children, ages 5 and 7. The couple expects their new arrival in late November, approximately two months into the mission. This makes them only the fourth couple in spaceflight history to welcome a child while one parent was orbiting Earth.

“Leaving these three (plus one on the way) is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Kutryk wrote on X prior to launch. He quoted explorer Fridtjof Nansen to describe the sacrifice: “Behind me lay all I held dear in life. And what lay before me? Happy child, little do you know what life is… and now, a farewell to home. It was the darkest hour of the whole journey.”

Watkins, who holds a Ph.D. in geology and flew to the ISS in 2022, returns for a second mission. Her crewmates are making their inaugural flights: Delaney is the 296th American in space, Kutryk the 297th, and Teteryatnikov the 298th. Delaney and Kutryk are both former military test pilots, while Teteryatnikov served in the Russian submarine force before becoming a cosmonaut.

The Crew 13 flight achieved a record-breaking eight-hour transit time to the station, an expedited schedule that will see the capsule autonomously dock with the Harmony module’s forward port at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Upon arrival, they will join the Crew 12 expedition, which is concluding its 237-day mission. Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will transfer operations to the new arrivals before departing. Their return is scheduled for Oct. 5, with splashdown off the coast of Southern California on Oct. 6.

“I think the thing that I’m looking forward to most is seeing my 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter,” Meir said. “I’m so looking forward to seeing nature again, feeling the breeze on my face… But I will very, very much miss being weightless all of the time and the incredible views that we have.”

Hathaway added, “Going home and being able to take a nice long hot shower will be very relaxing and very nice. And, of course, I’m looking forward to seeing my family. But a hot shower is near the top of my list.”

The incoming crew faces a packed agenda, including internal and external station maintenance, spacewalks, and numerous scientific experiments. Dana Weigel, director of NASA’s low-Earth orbit mission directorate, highlighted research focused on fighting heart disease and Parkinson’s by studying human stem cell-derived tissues. Additional studies will examine crop production for long-duration flights, blood flow abnormalities, and new diagnostic medical equipment.

Crew 12’s departure will free up docking space for a SpaceX Cargo Dragon arriving Oct. 13, which will deliver supplies and the final two roll-out solar array panels for the station. These arrays are part of a major power upgrade initiated in June 2021, with installation planned for late October and early November via spacewalks.

While political tensions between the U.S. and Canada have surfaced recently, the Canadian Space Agency remains a key partner in the U.S. space program. Kutryk becomes the 17th Canadian to fly in space, following Jeremy Hansen’s historic trip around the moon on the Artemis II mission.

“When I think about the space station, I hope the legacy is that people see this beacon in the sky… and they see it as sort of this beacon for what we can do when we make good decisions, when we work together and we collaborate,” Kutryk said.