--- title: SpaceX describes surgical intervention before launch of... description: A four-person Crew-13 team launched Thursday from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft, heading for a six-month ISS expedition. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-describes-surgical-intervention-before-launch-of-latest-crew-mission-w408f1juh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: SpaceX describes surgical intervention before launch of latest crew mission | daily.dev og:description: A four-person Crew-13 team launched Thursday from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft, heading for a six-month ISS expedition. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-describes-surgical-intervention-before-launch-of-latest-crew-mission-w408f1juh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/W408f1Juh.png og:image:alt: SpaceX describes surgical intervention before launch of latest crew mission og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # SpaceX describes surgical intervention before launch of latest crew mission **[Ars Technica](https://daily.dev/sources/arstechnica)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A four-person Crew-13 team launched Thursday from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft, heading for a six-month ISS expedition. The mission, commanded by geologist-astronaut Jessica Watkins—the first Black woman to lead a spaceflight—was delayed from mid-September after SpaceX had to cut into a propellant line to replace a faulty valve in Dragon's propulsion system. The crew also includes pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why was the SpaceX Crew-13 launch delayed from September to October? The launch was delayed to replace a faulty valve in the Dragon spacecraft's propulsion system. Technicians had to cut into a propellant line inside the spacecraft to access and swap out the defective component before it was cleared for flight. _daily.dev keeps engineers following spacecraft propulsion fixes and launch delay reporting in one place._ ### Who commanded the SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the ISS? Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old geologist turned astronaut, commanded Crew-13, becoming the first Black woman to lead a spacecraft mission. She previously spent 170 days in orbit during a long-duration spaceflight in 2022 and was the only veteran astronaut on this four-person crew. _daily.dev helps space and engineering followers track crewed mission milestones as they happen._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Artemis II live updates: Nasa’s crewed rocket lifts off to begin 10-day lunar journey](https://daily.dev/posts/artemis-ii-live-updates-nasa-s-crewed-rocket-lifts-off-to-begin-10-day-lunar-journey-kgomxdeac) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [NASA tells astronauts to shelter in SpaceX Dragon due to new ISS leaks](https://daily.dev/posts/nasa-tells-astronauts-to-shelter-in-spacex-dragon-due-to-new-iss-leaks-53afah9kj) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [NASA Announces Artemis III Crew And Ambitious Goals](https://daily.dev/posts/nasa-announces-artemis-iii-crew-and-ambitious-goals-neamhi3iz) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Rocket Report: SpaceX probes upper stage malfunction; Starship testing resumes](https://daily.dev/posts/rocket-report-spacex-probes-upper-stage-malfunction-starship-testing-resumes-bwvjaousc) · Ars Technica · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#spacex](https://daily.dev/tags/spacex) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-describes-surgical-intervention-before-launch-of-latest-crew-mission-w408f1juh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"SpaceX describes surgical intervention before launch of latest crew mission","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-describes-surgical-intervention-before-launch-of-latest-crew-mission-w408f1juh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/spacex-describes-surgical-intervention-before-launch-of-latest-crew-mission-w408f1juh"},"datePublished":"2026-10-01T22:20:20.488Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T22:20:42.178Z","description":"A four-person Crew-13 team launched Thursday from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft, heading for a six-month ISS expedition. 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