Jessica Watkins leads crew to ISS in reported US record transit time
Jessica Watkins and three crewmates docked at the International Space Station on October 1, 2026, after a seven-hour, 55-minute journey, The Guardian reported.
In short
- Jessica Watkins and three crewmates docked at the International Space Station on October 1, 2026, after a seven-hour, 55-minute journey, The Guardian reported.
Jessica Watkins and three crewmates reached the International Space Station on October 1, 2026, after a flight lasting seven hours and 55 minutes, according to The Guardian. The report described the journey as the fastest by a US spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory and Watkins as the first Black woman to command a crew to orbit.
The SpaceX mission launched for NASA from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 15:10 UTC. Its Dragon capsule, Grace, subsequently docked with the station. Watkins travelled with fellow American Luke Delaney, Canadian Joshua Kutryk and Russian Sergey Teteryatnikov.
The launch followed a three-week delay to repair a leak in the capsule’s fuel system, the newspaper reported. The crew is scheduled to spend six months aboard the station, replacing four astronauts who arrived in February.
Watkins previously stayed at the station in 2022; her three crewmates are making their first spaceflights. The mission is designated Crew-13.
Transit times depend heavily on the station’s position relative to the spacecraft at launch. The short journey therefore does not establish that future crews will routinely reach the station in under eight hours.
