Crew Dragon Grace Reaches ISS in 7 Hours 55 Minutes, Beating U.S. Record by 4 Hours
Updated
Updated · TESLARATI · Oct 5
Crew Dragon Grace Reaches ISS in 7 Hours 55 Minutes, Beating U.S. Record by 4 Hours
3 articles · Updated · TESLARATI · Oct 5
Summary
Crew Dragon Grace docked at the ISS at 7:05 p.m. ET on Oct. 1, just 7 hours 55 minutes after launch from Cape Canaveral and nearly an hour earlier than NASA had projected.
NASA said the flight set the fastest launch-to-docking time ever for a U.S. spacecraft to the station, topping SpaceX’s previous mark from the CRS-31 cargo mission in November 2024 by more than four hours.
SpaceX said the speed came from orbital timing rather than new hardware: the station was in an "opportune spot in space," letting Dragon begin closing the gap almost immediately after reaching orbit.
All five fastest U.S. ISS trips now belong to Dragon, including Crew-11 at 14 hours 43 minutes, Ax-2 at 15 hours 35 minutes and Crew-4 at 15 hours 44 minutes.
Dragon’s rapid turnaround matters for NASA because it remains the agency’s only operational ISS transport while Boeing’s Starliner is grounded, with Crew-12 set to undock Oct. 7 to clear the port for CRS-35.