Four people strapped into a capsule named Grace and left the planet for six months. Their high school gave one of them a day off. We have so many questions about how that works.
On October 1, four astronauts climbed into a SpaceX Crew Dragon, sat through some very real thunderstorm concerns, and launched toward the International Space Station for a stay of up to six months. Meanwhile, you are reading this with a cold cup of coffee and a looming email. Everyone has their orbit.
Meet the crew
NASA’s Jessica Watkins is the commander, a geologist on her second spaceflight after Crew-4 in 2022. Luke Delaney, also with NASA, is the pilot and a naval aviator on his first trip to space. They’re joined by the Canadian Space Agency’s Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, each on a first flight. Docking was expected about eight hours after liftoff, which is faster than most people get to their in-laws.
The capsule has a name, and it’s Grace
The Dragon is called Grace, and it happens to be the fifth and final Dragon spacecraft SpaceX built. It has been to orbit before, carrying four private astronauts on Axiom’s Ax-4 mission. This is a capsule with a résumé. The launch had originally been planned for mid-September, but it slipped after an oxidizer leak was found on the capsule in August, which is exactly the kind of problem you want people to find before launch rather than after.
The hometown hero
Delaney grew up in DeBary, Florida, and his former school, Deltona High, declared launch day “Luke Delaney Day.” We want to be clear that this is the most successful alumni outcome in the history of education. Everyone else gets a plaque in the hallway. He gets a holiday.
What they’ll actually be doing
The crew will handle station maintenance and a lineup of experiments, including stem cell research connected to Parkinson’s disease, work on growing crops in space, and testing new equipment for monitoring crew health. It’s science, with the added challenge of doing it all while floating.
A few nods to history
The mission name and patch tip a hat to Apollo 13, which is a bold choice for a mission number, though we are happy to report this one launched without drama. Watkins is also the first Black woman to serve on the station, a milestone that’s as much a part of this mission as the rocket.
Six months is a long time to be away from home, takeout and the ability to stand up. We wish the crew a safe stay, and we hope someone remembers to water the space lettuce.