SpaceX launches crew to space station, including astronaut who’ll miss birth of 3rd child during 6-month mission

Updated on: October 1, 2026 / 11:57 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…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/