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Jessica Watkins set for second Crew Dragon flight
NASA’s Crew-13 mission will send Jessica Watkins back to the ISS in mid-September, making her the agency’s first astronaut to fly twice on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
Image: ITzine
NASA is preparing the Crew-13 launch to the International Space Station, with liftoff from Cape Canaveral scheduled for mid-September. The headline detail is Jessica Watkins, who will become the first NASA astronaut to reach orbit for a second time specifically aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
She will fly alongside three crewmates making their first trip to space: NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency representative Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Tetyatnikov. The four are now wrapping up training, heading into final preparations for the launch site, and taking part in public briefings in Houston.
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For NASA, the broader setup is now routine. Since 2020, Crew Dragon has carried astronauts to the ISS under contract with the agency, and multinational crews have become standard for SpaceX missions. What sets Crew-13 apart is Watkins' return to the same program after previously flying on Crew-4 in 2022.
Watkins brings deep mission experience. She previously worked on the science team for the Curiosity rover and has logged 170 days in orbit. After docking with the station, the Crew-13 team will continue work as part of the next long-duration expedition.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via ITzine
