Astronauts arrive at International Space Station on quickest US flight yet

A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts docking at the International Space Station (Nasa/AP)

Four astronauts have arrived at the International Space Station after an eight-hour journey that set a US speed record.

The fresh arrivals include a Canadian whose wife will give birth while he is away.

SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for Nasa after a three-week delay to fix their Dragon capsule’s leaking fuel system.

Thick clouds threatened all morning to halt the countdown but the skies cleared enough to allow for a safe lift-off.

Although their stay at the ISS will last six months, the flight there was the quickest yet, not only for Elon Musk’s company, but any American entity, including Nasa.

The space station’s convenient location when the astronauts launched enabled the fast transit.

With the late morning lift-off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Ms Watkins became the first black woman to lead a crew to orbit.

A geologist who worked with Nasa’s Mars rover Curiosity a decade ago, she is making her second trip to the space station after a lengthy stay in 2022.

“Thanks for an amazing ride,” Ms Watkins radioed after lift-off.

The others are newcomers to space: Nasa’s Luke Delaney, a retired marine; Canada’s Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Russia’s Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner.

They will replace four astronauts who have been living at the orbiting laboratory since February.

This was the 13th crew launched by SpaceX for Nasa, not counting 2020’s test flight. All four embrace their Crew-13 designation that pays homage in their mission patch to Apollo 13, the 1970 moonshot that ended with the astronauts’ safe return.

References to the number 13 abounded on Thursday. Ms Watkins and her crew rode to the launch pad in black Teslas bearing plates that read “Lucky 13″, and they carried a small crocheted golden dragon named Lucky with a four-leaf clover around its neck.

“We figured it wouldn’t hurt to bring a little of our own luck just in case, but clearly we don’t need it,” Ms Watkins said from orbit, noting they were “four of the luckiest humans on or off planet Earth”.

Col Kutryk will become the fourth man to become a father while orbiting Earth. Wife Heather is due to give birth to their third child in late November. The Canadian Space Agency promises plenty of support for the family when the big day comes.

“A lot of life-changing things can happen over six months,” Nasa manager Dana Weigel said on the eve of lift-off, noting that the space agency will do its best to keep Col Kutryk in touch with his family.

In 2004, Nasa provided a radio link between space station astronaut Mike Fincke and his wife’s delivery room during the birth of their daughter. Five years later, Randy Bresnik, commander of next year’s Artemis III mission, dialled in to his wife’s hospital from orbit.

The happy news travelled more slowly for Austrian astronaut Franz Viehbock. His daughter was born a few hours after he launched to the Soviet Union’s Mir space station in 1991. He was not informed until the next day.