NASA names Crew-13’s station research plans ahead of October launch opportunity

NASA has outlined the research and station work planned for SpaceX Crew-13, a four-person mission targeting launch no earlier than October 1. Commander Jessica Watkins and her crewmates are due to travel to the International Space Station after a delay tied to a leak in their Dragon spacecraft’s propulsion system. The launch opportunity remains subject to final preparations, making NASA’s September 28 briefing a statement of plans rather than a report of work already completed.

The crew pairs Watkins with NASA pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. Kutryk and Teteryatnikov will serve as mission specialists. NASA has set the earliest launch opportunity at 11:10 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, October 1, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Who is flying

Watkins is the only member of the quartet who has flown in space before. She spent 170 days aboard the station during Expeditions 67 and 68 in 2022, after launching on Crew-4. NASA says Crew-13 would make her the first NASA astronaut to launch twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. For Delaney, Kutryk and Teteryatnikov, this is planned as a first spaceflight.

Delaney is a former naval aviator and test pilot who also worked as a research pilot at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Kutryk served as a Canadian fighter pilot and an experimental and operational test pilot. Before joining Russia’s cosmonaut corps, Teteryatnikov worked in naval engineering. Those backgrounds bring flight-test and engineering experience to a crew NASA expects to spend an extended period aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The work planned aboard the station

NASA says Crew-13 will carry out scientific experiments, technology demonstrations and maintenance during a long-duration mission. Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said the crew will study tissues derived from human stem cells that are relevant to heart disease and Parkinson’s disease. NASA describes possible applications in disease modelling, medicine and pharmaceutical testing; the experiments have yet to produce any result on this mission.

Weigel also identified crop production, blood-flow abnormalities observed in space and diagnostic equipment for monitoring crew health as areas of planned work. NASA links the broader research programme to future missions to the Moon and Mars and to potential benefits on Earth. Those are the agency’s aims for the work, not established benefits from Crew-13’s flight.

Station operations are part of the assignment too. NASA expects Crew-13 to join the seven members of Expedition 75 after docking. Following a short handover, the outgoing Crew-12 astronauts are expected to leave aboard their Dragon spacecraft. During Crew-13’s stay, NASA also expects a SpaceX resupply flight delivering International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays and a later Northrop Grumman resupply mission.

What remains before launch

Crew-13 had previously been scheduled for September 12. Spaceflight Now reported that an oxidizer leak in Dragon’s propulsion system prompted the delay, and that NASA later said SpaceX had replaced an oxidizer valve after detecting the leak during processing. The outlet said NASA’s earlier public updates provided little further detail about the repair. NASA’s new briefing describes the October date as an earliest launch opportunity.

Before liftoff, NASA says teams must finish rocket and spacecraft checkouts and certify the components, then mate Dragon with Falcon 9 and move the combined vehicle to the pad. The plans include a crew rehearsal and an integrated static-fire test. These steps matter to the schedule because the announced launch time is a target while preflight work continues, rather than a guarantee that the rocket will depart on October 1.

The spacecraft, named Grace, previously flew the private Axiom Mission 4 in summer 2025. If launched, Falcon 9 is expected to put Dragon into orbit for its trip to the station. NASA says the spacecraft is designed to dock autonomously at the forward-facing port of the Harmony module, although the crew can take manual control if necessary. Crew-13 will be SpaceX’s 13th crew rotation mission to the station for NASA; counting the Demo-2 test flight, it will be the programme’s 14th Dragon flight with astronauts.