SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying 4 astronauts docks with IS

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft carrying four astronauts for NASA's Crew-13 mission docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, after a nearly eight-hour journey from launch to the orbiting laboratory.

The spacecraft lifted off at 11:10 a.m. Eastern Time (1610 GMT) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It autonomously docked with the ISS at 7:05 p.m. Eastern Time (0005 GMT).

The crew comprises NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.

The mission, codenamed Crew-13, marks the 13th crew rotation mission to the ISS conducted by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

The crew will spend several months aboard the space station conducting scientific research and technology demonstrations to support future human exploration of the Moon and Mars, as well as studies with potential benefits for people on Earth, according to NASA.