NASA’s Crew-13 astronauts begin walk from Kennedy crew quarters ahead of planned launch

NASA said its four Crew-13 astronauts had suited up and begun their walk from crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, October 1, ahead of a planned flight to the International Space Station. The update marked the crew’s move toward the launch pad, with liftoff still scheduled for later that morning; it did not report that the astronauts had launched.

In a 7:40 a.m. EDT update, NASA said the crew was preparing to leave the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The planned launch time was 11:10 a.m. EDT. Those times put the launch-day report more than three hours before the scheduled liftoff.

What happens between crew quarters and the launch pad

NASA said the astronauts had begun the walk from the building’s Astronaut Crew Quarters toward its elevator and lower doors. The agency traces that departure ritual to Apollo 7 in 1968. Before leaving the suit-up room, the crew also played a card game that, according to NASA, continues until the commander loses. NASA described the tradition as an attempt to ‘burn off’ bad luck.

The agency said the crew would next say goodbye to family and friends, then board customized electric crew transport vehicles for the roughly 20-minute drive to the launch complex. Its account described those steps as imminent at the time of publication, rather than reporting that the journey to the pad had already been completed.

Who is flying on Crew-13

NASA identifies Jessica Watkins as spacecraft commander and Luke Delaney as pilot. Both are NASA astronauts. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov are the mission specialists. NASA says this will be Watkins’s second flight to the station and the first spaceflight for each of the other three crew members.

The four are due to travel aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft Grace. NASA says Grace previously flew to and from the station on Axiom Mission 4 in 2025. Crew-13 is the 13th SpaceX crew rotation mission to the station under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which uses company spacecraft to carry astronauts to the orbiting laboratory.

NASA says the crew is expected to join Expedition 75 and carry out research, technology demonstrations and station maintenance. Its mission overview says the Crew-12 astronauts are preparing to return to Earth after a short handover once Crew-13 arrives. Arrival and handover remain planned events in that overview.

The scheduled launch and docking sequence

The Canadian Space Agency’s September 29 advisory targeted launch for no earlier than 11:10 a.m. EDT on October 1. It listed a post-launch news conference for 12:45 p.m. EDT, docking at 7 p.m. EDT and hatch opening followed by crew remarks at 8:45 p.m. EDT. Each is a schedule entry, not confirmation that the event occurred.

NASA says that, after reaching orbit, Dragon is expected to make a series of maneuvers toward the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. The spacecraft is designed to dock autonomously, although the crew can take manual control if necessary. Docking would bring the four astronauts aboard the station before the planned Crew-12 handover and departure.

The mission’s work is intended to extend beyond the flight itself. Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said planned studies include stem-cell-derived tissues relevant to heart disease and Parkinson’s disease research, crop production, blood-flow abnormalities in space and diagnostic equipment for monitoring crew health. These are research plans, not findings or treatments from this mission.

NASA’s crew-departure report and the published mission schedules establish what was planned before liftoff. They do not establish whether the launch occurred, whether Dragon reached orbit or whether it docked. Those outcomes require a later status update.