Crew-13 reaches the ISS in record time as Crew-12 returns after 237 days in orbit

Crew-13 launched on October 1 at 11:10 a.m. ET aboard the Dragon "Grace" and docked with the International Space Station seven hours and 55 minutes later, the fastest of any Dragon flight, SpacePolicyOnline reports.

The crew are commander Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney of NASA, Canada's Josh Kutryk and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. A week later, on October 8, the Crew-12 astronauts, Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA's Sophie Adenot of France and Andrey Fedyaev, splashed down off Los Angeles after 237 days in space.

The station's final chapter

The ISS is in its fourth decade of operation and is planned to be deorbited at the end of the decade, to be replaced by commercial stations. The first, Vast's Haven-1, is currently not expected to launch before the first quarter of 2027.