!crew-13-kennedy-oct-1-iss hero Hero photo: NASA/Bill Stafford (public domain U.S. government work).
The next ride to the International Space Station just touched down in Florida — on two T-38 jets.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 arrived at Kennedy Space Center: commander Jessica Watkins (NASA, her second trip), pilot Luke Delaney (NASA), Joshua Kutryk (Canadian Space Agency), and Sergey Teteryatnikov (Roscosmos). Watkins is the only veteran; for the other three, this will be a first flight.
Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than Thursday, Oct. 1, at about 11:10 a.m. EDT aboard Dragon Grace. The original Sept. 12 window slipped after an oxidizer leak in Grace’s propulsion system; SpaceX replaced the valve during processing, and NASA and SpaceX gave a Flight Readiness Review go on Friday. Still ahead: a Falcon 9 engine test, a launch-day rehearsal with the crew, plus quarantine and final prep.
“We are excited, we are ready to fly,” Watkins told reporters after landing — calling arrival both the culmination of more than a year of crew training and the start of joining Expedition 75 on station.
Why regular people should care
Crew rotation is how the Station stays staffed for science, maintenance, and emergency readiness. This flight is a commercial Dragon ride with an international four-person team — the kind of launch you can put on a calendar and follow from Florida or a livestream. Delaney, a Florida native who grew up watching shuttles, gets to see Kennedy from the other side of the fence.
What’s next
Watch the countdown to Oct. 1. If weather and vehicle status hold, Grace heads for the ISS with a fresh crew after a delay that was fixed on the ground — the safest place for a valve swap.