Crew-13 Arrives at ISS as Crew-12 Prepares to Depart

What happened

NASA’s 13th operational Crew Dragon mission arrived at the International Space Station today about 8 hours after launch. This morning, a new crew launched to the @Space_Station for a long-duration science mission.

That’s the fastest trip on a SpaceX Dragon thanks to an opportune orbital alignment between the launch pad and the ISS after a recent reboost. Liftoff of Crew Dragon Grace with Crew-13 aboard was on time at 11:10 am ET despite weather that remained iffy throughout the countdown.

This was just the second launch of Grace, SpaceX’s newest Crew Dragon. The first was a little over a year ago with the Axiom-4 private astronaut mission.