What You Need to Know About NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 Mission

The SpaceX Crew-13 members pose for a portrait in their pressure suits during a preflight training session at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. From left are, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk. SpaceX Four crew members are set to launch to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to perform research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance aboard the orbiting laboratory. NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney will support the mission as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, joined by CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov as mission specialists. Crew-13 will lift off no earlier than 11:10 a.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 1, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and join the space station’s Expedition 75 crew. Throughout its long‑duration mission, the crew will conduct science experiments to advance research and technology for future Moon and Mars missions and improve life on Earth. “During the mission, the crew will help researchers treat heart disease and Parkinson’s disease by studying human stem-cell derived tissues that can help improve medicine, disease modeling, and pharmaceutical testing,” said Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “They also will explore crop production, which is important for longer-duration spaceflight missions, help us better understand blood flow abnormalities that we see in space, and test new diagnostic medical equipment for monitoring crew health.” The flight is the 13th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Office . Support teams continue to progress through Dragon preflight milestones for Crew-13 and are preparing a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster for its third flight. Up in orbit, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 is preparing to return to Earth after a brief handover once Crew-13 arrives. After all rocket and spacecraft system checkouts are complete and all components are certified, teams will mate Dragon to Falcon 9 in SpaceX’s hangar at the launch site. The integrated spacecraft and rocket will then roll to the pad, where it will be raised vertically for a dry dress rehearsal with the crew and an integrated static fire test before launch. The quartet will fly aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft named Grace. This spacecraft previously flew in summer 2025 in support of private astronaut mission Axiom Mission 4. Meet Crew-13 Commander Jessica Watkins NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station, poses for a portrait in her pressure suit at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX This will be the second flight to the space station for Watkins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. She grew up in Lafayette, Colorado, and earned an undergraduate degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University, as well as a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles. As a geologist, Watkins studied the Martian surface and was a member of the Curiosity rover science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. She first launched to the space station aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission, spending a total of 170 days in space across Expeditions 67/68 in 2022. She will be the first NASA astronaut to launch twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Follow Jessica on X and Instagram . Pilot Luke Delaney NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station, poses for a portrait in his pressure suit at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, Delaney earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineerin