Dragon Grace Docks at ISS with Crew-13

After a record-breaking 8 hour transit, Crew-13 has arrived at the International Space Station at 7:05 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. Crew Dragon Grace docked to Harmony’s forward port, and the hatch opened at 9:19 p.m. EDT.

NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov went inside and joined Expedition 75.

Record Breaking Transit

Grace launched at 11:10 a.m. EDT the same day from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA timed the trip from that launch to docking at 7 hours 55 minutes, and called it the fastest launch-to-docking of a U.S. spacecraft in the history of the station, which includes the time from the ground, to docking. It doesn’t include the additional wait time for the hatch, but even then, it still breaks the record.

NASA had the Dragon clocked in for about 7 p.m. EDT, and it arrived right on time, at 7:05. Because of its high level of automation, Grace docked itself on Harmony’s space-side forward port, while the crews aboard both Grace and the ISS monitored the approach.

At Crew-13’s post-launch press conference, Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA science and Dragon programs at SpaceX, said, “We got lucky this time.” She also said, “The space station was in an opportune spot in space, and the orbital mechanics, the physics of it all, worked out for it to be the shortest launch-to-docking time we’ve had to date,” and that “this is close to the fastest it could be.”

Docking confirmed! pic.twitter.com/Y1xwyaevSL

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 1, 2026

Eleven People Aboard

Seven people were already on Expedition 75: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Anil Menon; European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Anna Kikina, and Andrey Fedyaev. Crew-13 brought the station to 11 people.

Four agencies are in that crew. Watkins, Delaney, Meir, Hathaway, and Menon are the NASA astronauts. Kutryk represents the Canadian Space Agency, and Adenot the European Space Agency. Teteryatnikov, Dubrov, Kikina, and Fedyaev are the Roscosmos cosmonauts.

Opening the Hatch

After Grace was on the port, the crew ran standard leak checks and pressurized the passage between Dragon and Harmony so the seal could be confirmed before anyone crossed. Before docking, NASA said the hatches would open about an hour and 45 minutes after the linkup. After Grace was attached, the plan was about 8:45 p.m. EDT. The hatch opened at 9:19 p.m., 34 minutes later, and 2 hours and 14 minutes after the 7:05 p.m. docking.

From the 11:10 a.m. launch to that hatch opening, the crew’s day ran 10 hours and 9 minutes. They will spend the next several months on science and technology experiments for life on Earth and in space.

Welcome aboard! 🙌

After nearly eight hours in flight, Crew-13 arrived at the @Space_Station, where they will spend the next several months conducting experiments on science and tech to benefit life on Earth and in space. pic.twitter.com/2bTqsLFWa6

— NASA (@NASA) October 2, 2026

Six Spacecraft Attached

Six spacecraft were attached to the station that night. Two were Dragons: Crew-12’s capsule and Crew-13’s Grace. Soyuz MS-29, a crew ship, was there as well, along with Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL and the Progress 95 and Progress 96 resupply ships. Crew-12’s Dragon was still attached when Grace arrived, so two SpaceX crew capsules were on the station at once.