NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 has reached NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the four-person team will complete prelaunch preparations for a flight to the International Space Station. The crew is led by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who serves as commander, with NASA astronaut Luke Delaney as pilot. CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov round out the team as mission specialists.
The crew departed Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in T-38 training aircraft and was expected to land around 1 p.m. EDT at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility. On the runway, representatives from NASA Kennedy and the agency's Low Earth Orbit Program greeted the crew, who then spoke briefly with media gathered on site. Coverage of the arrival event was carried on NASA Kennedy's YouTube channel.
From the landing facility, the astronauts moved to the Astronaut Crew Quarters inside Kennedy's Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. There they will remain in quarantine and continue final preparations for launch, a standard step designed to protect crew health before they leave Earth.
Liftoff is scheduled for no earlier than 11:10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission is part of NASA's commercial crew program, which relies on private spacecraft and launch vehicles to carry astronauts to and from the orbiting laboratory.
The arrival marks the start of the final phase of training and quarantine for the multinational crew. Watkins, Delaney, Kutryk and Teteryatnikov will spend the days before launch reviewing mission procedures and resting before the flight. Their presence at Kennedy signals that the launch vehicle and spacecraft are moving through their own final checks at the Cape Canaveral launch site.
Crew-13 brings together astronauts from three space agencies. Watkins and Delaney represent NASA, Kutryk flies for the Canadian Space Agency, and Teteryatnikov represents Roscosmos. The composition reflects the international partnerships that sustain the International Space Station, where crews from multiple nations live and work together on scientific research in low Earth orbit.
Once aboard the station, the Crew-13 astronauts will join the orbiting outpost's existing crew and begin a mission focused on station operations and research. The exact duration of their stay was not specified in the prelaunch schedule, but commercial crew rotations typically last several months.
The Oct. 1 target date remains subject to change. Launch schedules for the space station are adjusted for weather conditions, technical readiness and orbital mechanics, and NASA and SpaceX will continue to evaluate the flight as the date approaches. The crew's quarantine period also serves as a buffer that allows for such adjustments without disrupting the astronauts' preparation.
For now, the focus at Kennedy is on the arrival itself. After months of training, the four astronauts are on site, in quarantine and within reach of the launch pad. Their next public appearance is expected to come closer to launch, when NASA provides coverage of the countdown and liftoff.
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