Crew-13 Arrives at Kennedy Space Center, Set to Launch October 1

The four-person crew of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission landed at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, September 26, to prepare for a launch to the International Space Station scheduled no earlier than 11:10 a.m. EDT (1510 UTC) on Thursday, October 1, according to Spaceflight Now.

Commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryantnikov flew in from NASA's Johnson Space Center aboard a pair of T-38 trainer jets, Spaceflight Now reported. Kutryk and Delaney each piloted one of the jets. Watkins rode with Kutryk, and Teteryantnikov flew with Delaney. They landed at the Launch and Landing Facility under clear skies with a light breeze, according to Spaceflight Now.

Watkins is the only member of the crew who has been to space before, making this her second flight. For Kutryk, Delaney, and Teteryantnikov, it will be their first, Spaceflight Now reported.

The mission was originally scheduled to launch September 12. An oxidizer leak in the crew's Dragon spacecraft, named Grace, forced NASA and SpaceX to delay it. NASA announced the delay in an August 29 post on its Commercial Crew Program blog. A September 16 post on the NASA International Space Station blog said SpaceX had "successfully replaced an oxidizer valve in Dragon's propulsion system after a leak was detected earlier in processing," according to Spaceflight Now. Neither blog post offered further detail on the repair.

Watkins addressed the delay at a press event after landing. "We are, first of all, so grateful to the teams on the ground, the SpaceX team here at the Cape, who were able to identify the issue with the vehicle on the ground with time to address it," she said, in remarks reported by Spaceflight Now. "And then for the teams that were able to identify the most appropriate, safest path forward to fix the issue."

She also spoke to what the arrival meant for the crew. "Arriving here today for us as a crew represents both kind of the culmination and the beginning of a journey for us," Watkins said. "We've been training together as a crew for over a year now, so it is the culmination of all of that work and effort." She added that the crew is ready to join the Expedition 75 crew aboard the station.

For Delaney, landing at Kennedy carried some personal weight. He grew up near the center and watched Space Shuttle launches as a kid, he told reporters, according to Spaceflight Now. "Now I'm going to get to see it from a little bit different perspective, I think, in the coming days," he said.

Kutryk called the day one of reflection. He told reporters he has flown into Kennedy roughly 100 times, but that this arrival felt different. "Today is just so special," he said, according to Spaceflight Now. He will be the second Canadian to reach space in 2026, following Jeremy Hansen's flight on the Artemis 2 mission in April, Spaceflight Now reported.

NASA and SpaceX held a Flight Readiness Review at Kennedy on Friday to assess their readiness to move into final prelaunch preparations, according to Spaceflight Now. A static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket, in which the engines are ignited briefly while the rocket remains on the pad, is scheduled for Sunday. A launch day rehearsal with the crew is planned for Tuesday, Spaceflight Now reported.

What the crew will work on during their time aboard the station is not detailed in the available record.

If the October 1 schedule holds, Crew-13 will lift off about three weeks after the original date. The repairs are done, the review is complete, and the crew is in Florida. The next step is Sunday's engine test.

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