2026年10月1日 / 美国东部时间上午11:14 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
一枚SpaceX猎鹰9号火箭于周四升空，飞往国际空间站，机上搭载两名NASA宇航员、一名俄罗斯宇航员和一名加拿大航天员。这名加拿大航天员的妻子计划在今年晚些时候分娩，也就是丈夫在太空执行任务期间，两人的第三个孩子降生。
搭乘SpaceX龙飞船乘员舱的第13乘组指挥官杰西卡·沃特金斯、飞行员卢克·德莱尼、俄罗斯宇航员谢尔盖·捷列亚特尼科夫以及加拿大宇航员约书亚·库特里克，于美国东部时间上午11:10从卡纳维拉尔角太空军基地的40号发射台升空。
本次发射原计划于9月中旬进行，但为更换龙飞船推进系统中的一个阀门而推迟。
拥有地质学博士学位的沃特金斯曾在2022年搭乘龙飞船进入太空。她的乘组成员都是太空新手——他们是第296、297和298位前往国际空间站的宇航员。德莱尼和库特里克都曾是军方试飞员，而捷列亚特尼科夫在成为宇航员之前曾在俄罗斯潜艇部队服役。
库特里克和妻子希瑟育有两个孩子，年龄分别为5岁和7岁。他们的第三个孩子预计在感恩节前后出生，届时正好是第13乘组任务进行到约两个月的时候。他们将成为太空旅行史上第四对父母一方在太空期间诞下孩子的夫妻。
“离开这三个孩子（加上腹中一个）是我这辈子做过最艰难的事，”他在发射前的X平台帖子中写道。
“但探索的本质向来如此。弗里乔夫·南森描述他启程前往北极时的话语，在我脑海中回响，”他继续说道。“我身后是生命中所有珍视之物。而前方等待我的是什么？快乐的孩子，你几乎不知道生活是什么——它多么奇妙地交织变幻……而今，告别家园。那是整个旅程中最黑暗的时刻。”
在发射台参观期间，加拿大宇航员约书亚·库特里克、妻子希瑟和他们的两个孩子近距离观看了将带他前往空间站的龙飞船载人舱。 约书亚·库特里克
尽管特朗普总统近期对加拿大持敌视态度，但加拿大航天局仍继续在美国航天计划中发挥重要作用。除了提供助力空间站建造的机械臂外，CSA宇航员杰里米·汉森还搭乘NASA的阿尔忒弥斯二号任务绕月飞行。库特里克是第17位进入太空的加拿大人。
“每当想到空间站，我希望它留下的遗产是：人们看到这颗在天空中环绕地球的灯塔，这是人类有史以来创造的最复杂的事物之一，他们能看到它所有的技术奇迹，以及我们在那里取得的所有科学发现，”库特里克说道。
“但（我也希望）人们也能将其视为一个灯塔，象征着我们在做出明智决策、携手合作、相互协作并 prioritizing （优先考量）相关事务时所能达成的成就。这证明了我们已经做到的事，我们能够做到的事，也真正印证了我们希望后代能够做到的事。”
在将猎鹰9号和龙飞船乘员舱送出稠密的低层大气后，猎鹰9号的第一级按计划自行返回太空军基地着陆，而火箭的上面级则继续向太空爬升。
创纪录的空间站飞行任务
与所有往返国际空间站的载人及无人飞行任务一样，第13乘组的发射时间被设定为地球自转将发射台带入空间站轨道平面的时刻。这是交会任务的必要条件，因为当前没有任何火箭拥有足够的动力来克服近5英里每秒的轨道速度并改变飞行方向。
尽管猎鹰9号无法改变轨道平面，但龙飞船乘员舱可以根据需要改变飞行高度，通过降低高度（并加快速度）来追赶目标空间站，或是升高高度以减慢接近速度。
在本次任务中，第13乘组的龙飞船仅需8小时——一项新纪录——即可追上国际空间站，并于晚上7点自动对接至空间站和谐舱的前向端口。
“我个人期待重返国际空间站，也期待第二次搭乘龙飞船飞行，并且非常期待从我的乘组成员的视角来体验这些经历，”沃特金斯说道。
“我们预计任务会非常繁忙，需要完成大量站内和站外的空间站维护工作，计划进行几次太空行走，还有来访航天器的捕获和停泊操作，大量的科学实验……以及大量的外联活动。”
迎接沃特金斯及其团队的将是他们即将接替的第12乘组：指挥官杰西卡·梅尔、飞行员杰克·阿瑟韦、欧洲航天局宇航员索菲·阿德纳和宇航员安德烈·费佳耶夫。他们即将结束为期237天的任务，该任务于2月11日搭乘猎鹰9号火箭发射升空。
此外，船上还有7月14日从哈萨克斯坦拜科努尔航天发射场搭乘联盟2.1a火箭发射的联盟MS-29/75S宇航员彼得·杜布罗夫、安娜·基基娜和NASA宇航员阿尼尔·梅宁。他们正在进行为期8个月的驻留，将于2027年4月初返回地球。
第13乘组的航天员将加入空间站上已有的7名机组人员。从中心左侧顺时针依次为：第12乘组指挥官杰西卡·梅尔、飞行员杰克·阿瑟韦、联盟号宇航员安娜·基基娜、宇航员安德烈·费佳耶夫、宇航员阿尼尔·梅农、欧洲航天局宇航员索菲·阿德纳和宇航员彼得·杜布罗夫。 美国国家航空航天局
在经过快速的“乘员交接”后，梅尔和她的队友将向继任者展示空间站操作的方方面面，第12乘组将搭乘他们自己的龙飞船乘员舱返回地球。计划于10月5日脱离对接，10月6日美国东部时间中午过后在加利福尼亚州南部海岸附近的太平洋海域溅落。
“我最期待的事情莫过于见到我3岁半的女儿，”梅尔说道，她曾两次执行太空任务，累计进行过7次太空行走。“我非常期待再次感受自然，感受微风拂过脸颊，感受树叶间的风声，体验所有那些我们在太空中无法拥有的事物。”
“但我也会非常非常怀念一直处于失重状态的感觉，以及我们在这里拥有的绝美景色。”
阿瑟韦说道：“回到家后能洗一个舒服的长时间热水澡会非常放松惬意。当然，我也期待见到我的家人。但洗热水澡是我的首要愿望之一。”
第12乘组的离开将腾出和谐舱面向太空的端口，以供10月13日抵达的SpaceX货运龙飞船使用。该飞船将装载乘员补给物资、科学设备、备件和两块可展开式太阳能阵列面板。第13乘组的航天员还预计将于12月迎来诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司的货运飞船，以及11月和2月的两艘俄罗斯进步号货运飞船。
欧洲航天局宇航员索菲·阿德纳从空间站的多窗穹顶舱俯瞰地球。 美国国家航空航天局
下一艘货运龙飞船搭载的可展开式太阳能阵列是空间站原有太阳能系统重大升级的最后两组组件，该升级工程始于2021年6月的首次安装。最后两组阵列将在本月下旬和11月初的太空行走中完成安装。
但与所有NASA前往空间站的任务一样，本次飞行的主要目标是在太空微重力环境中开展研究。任何时候都有数十项实验和技术演示正在进行，几乎每次飞行都会有新的研究项目送上空间站。
第13乘组的航天员也将面临同样的挑战。
“在任务期间，机组人员将帮助我们对抗心脏病和帕金森病，他们将研究人类干细胞衍生组织，这将有助于改进药物、疾病建模和药物测试，”NASA近地轨道任务理事会主任达娜·韦格尔说道。
“他们还将探索对长期太空飞行任务至关重要的作物生产，帮助我们更好地了解太空中出现的血流异常情况，同时测试用于监测机组人员健康状况的新型诊断医疗设备。这只是机组人员在空间站开展的研究中的几个亮点。”
总而言之，阿瑟韦表示，全体机组人员都期待着在太空度过一段忙碌充实的时光。
“对我来说，无论是科学研究、太空行走还是这次任务的其他所有内容，都将是一段美好的时光，”德莱尼说道。“很高兴能和这个机组一起发射，加入远征任务，成为NASA和所有国际空间站团队成员的延伸。未来的日子令人兴奋不已！”
SpaceX launches crew to space station, including astronaut who’ll miss birth of 3rd child during 6-month mission
October 1, 2026 / 11:14 AM EDT / CBS News
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off on a flight to the International Space Station Thursday carrying two NASA astronauts, a cosmonaut and a Canadian crew member whose wife plans a launch of her own later this year, giving birth to the couple’s third child while her husband is in space.
Strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Crew 13 commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:10 a.m. EDT.
The launch originally was planned for mid September, but the flight was delayed to replace a valve in the Crew Dragon’s propulsion system.
Watkins, who holds a Ph.D. in geology, flew to space aboard a Crew Dragon in 2022. Her crewmates are space rookies — the 296th, 297th and 298th astronauts to fly aboard the ISS. Delaney and Kutryk are both former military test pilots while Teteryatnikov served in the Russian submarine force before becoming a cosmonaut.
Kutryk and his wife Heather have two children, ages 5 and 7. They’re expecting their third child around Thanksgiving, about two months into the Crew 13 mission. They will become the fourth couple in the history of space travel to have a child born while one parent was off the planet.
“Leaving these three (plus one on the way) is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he wrote in a pre-launch post on X.
“But that has always been the nature of exploration. Words from Fridtjof Nansen, describing his departure for the North Pole, resonate in my mind,” he continued. “‘Behind me lay all I held dear in life. And what lay before me? Happy child, little do you know what life is – how strangely mingled and how full of change… and now, a farewell to home. It was the darkest hour of the whole journey.’”
During a launch pad visit, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, his wife Heather and their two children enjoyed an up-close view of the Crew Dragon ferry ship that will carry him to the space station. Joshua Kutryk
Despite President Trump’s recent animosity toward Canada, the Canadian Space Agency continues to play a major role in the U.S. space program. Along with supplying the robot arms that helped build the space station, CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen flew around the moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission. Kutryk is the 17th Canadian to fly in space.
“When I think about the space station, I hope the legacy is that people see this beacon in the sky going around Earth, one of the most complex things humans have ever, ever created, and they see it for all of its technical marvel and all the science and discoveries we’re making there,” said Kutryk.
“But (I hope) they also see it as sort of this beacon for what we can do when we make good decisions, when we work together and we collaborate and we prioritize things. It’s testament to what we’ve done, what we can do, and really to what we hope the generations that follow can do.”
After boosting the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon capsule out of the dense lower atmosphere, the Falcon 9’s first stage was programmed to fly itself back to a landing at the Space Force station while the rocket’s upper stage continued the climb to space.
Record-setting flight to space station
Like all flights to the International Space Station, piloted and unpiloted alike, the Crew 13 launch was timed for the moment Earth’s rotation carried the pad into the plane of the station’s orbit. That’s a requirement for rendezvous missions because no current rockets have the power to overcome their orbital momentum and change their direction of travel when moving at nearly 5 miles per second.
While a Falcon 9 cannot change orbital planes, the Crew Dragon capsule can change its altitude as required, flying lower — and faster — to catch up with its quarry and higher to slow down the approach.
In this case, it will take Crew 13 capsule just eight hours — a record — to catch up with the ISS, moving in for an automated docking at the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at 7 p.m.
“I personally am looking forward to returning to the ISS as well as flying on Dragon a second time, and really looking forward to experiencing those experiences through the eyes of my crewmates,” Watkins said.
“We expect a very busy mission with lots of station maintenance, both internal and external, with a few EVAs (spacewalks) on the docket as well as visiting vehicle capture and stowage operations, lots of science … and plenty of outreach.”
Standing by to welcome Watkins and company aboard will be the crew they are replacing: Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. They’re wrapping up a 237-day mission that began with launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 11.
Also on board: Soyuz MS-29/75S cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, Anna Kikina and NASA astronaut Anil Menin, launched on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 14. They’re in the midst of an eight-month stay, returning to Earth in early April 2027.
The Crew 13 fliers will be joining seven crew members already aboard the space station. Clockwise from center left: Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, Soyuz cosmonaut Anna Kikina, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, astronaut Anil Menon, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov. NASA
After an expedited “crew handover,” during which Meir and her crewmates will show their replacements the ins and outs of station operations, Crew 12 will board their own Crew Dragon capsule and return to Earth. Undocking is planned for Oct. 5 with splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the southern California coast just past noon EDT on Oct. 6.
“I think the thing that I’m looking forward to most is seeing my 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter,” said Meir, a two-flight veteran with seven spacewalks to her credit. “I’m so looking forward to seeing nature again, feeling the breeze on my face, the wind rustling through the leaves, experiencing all those things that we don’t have up here.
“But I will very, very much miss being weightless all the time and the incredible views that we have.”
Said Hathaway: “Going home and being able to take a nice long hot shower will be very relaxing and very nice. And, of course, I’m looking forward to seeing my family. But a hot shower is near the top of my list.”
Crew 12’s departure will free up the Harmony module’s space-facing port for the arrival of a SpaceX Cargo Dragon on Oct. 13 that will be loaded with crew supplies, science gear, spare parts and two roll-out solar array panels. The Crew 13 fliers also expect to welcome a Northrop Grumman cargo ship in December, along with two Russian Progress freighters in November and February.
European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot takes in the view of Earth from the space station’s multi-window Cupola compartment. NASA
The roll-out solar arrays going up on the next Dragon Cargo ship are the final sets in a major upgrade to the station’s original solar power system that began with initial installations in June 2021. The final two sets will be installed during spacewalks late this month and early November.
But the major goal of the flight, like all NASA missions to the station, is conducting research in the microgravity environment of space. Scores of experiments and technology demonstrations are running at any given moment with fresh studies going up on virtually every flight.
The Crew 13 fliers will face the same challenges.
“During the mission, the crew will help us fight heart disease and Parkinson’s disease by studying human stem cell-derived tissues that will help improve medicine, disease modeling, and pharmaceutical testing,” said Dana Weigel, director of NASA’s low-Earth orbit mission directorate.
“They will also explore crop production that’s important for longer-duration spaceflight missions, and they’ll help us better understand blood flow abnormalities that we see in space, along with testing new diagnostic medical equipment for monitoring crew health. That’s just a couple of the highlights of the research the crew will be doing on board.”
All in all, Hathaway said, the crew is looking forward to an action-packed stay in space.
“For me, between the science, the spacewalks and everything else that the expedition is going to have, it’s looking to be a great time,” Delaney said. “Excited to launch with this crew, join the expedition, and integrate as an extension of NASA and all the ISS team members. So exciting times ahead!”