Crew-13 Astronauts Arrive in Florida Ahead of Oct. 1 Launch to ISS

NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 team of four astronauts touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, as they prepare for a trip to the International Space Station now set to lift off no earlier than 11:10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 1.¹²

Arrival at the Cape

The crew flew from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston aboard a pair of T-38 jets, landing at Kennedy's Launch and Landing Facility. Pilots Joshua Kutryk and Luke Delaney flew the jets, with Jessica Watkins riding alongside Kutryk and Sergey Teteryatnikov flying with Delaney.¹²

For Delaney, a Florida native from Volusia County, the arrival was described as a homecoming. Asked about landing close to his hometown of Debary, about 50 miles away, he said, "Coming here in Kennedy, coming back to Florida, it’s definitely near and dear to my heart."¹²

An international, mostly first-time crew

Jessica Watkins commands the mission and is making her second spaceflight, having flown on Crew-4 in 2022 and logged 170 days in space. For the rest of the crew, according to the reporting, the flight will be a first trip to orbit.¹²

Joshua Kutryk represents the Canadian Space Agency and will be the second Canadian to fly this year, following Jeremy Hansen's Artemis 2 mission in April. Sergey Teteryatnikov is flying as Roscosmos's cosmonaut on the mission, according to Russian state media, which cited Roscosmos as saying he "will go to the ISS as part of the Crew-13 mission on Oct. 1."²³⁵

Delay traced to an oxidizer leak

Crew-13 was originally expected to launch in November before NASA moved to bring the flight forward to grow the frequency of U.S. crew rotations, targeting no earlier than mid-September. According to the reporting, the crew was then slated to fly on Sept. 12.¹²

An oxidizer leak was detected in the propulsion system of the Dragon spacecraft named Grace during routine prelaunch testing, prompting NASA and SpaceX to delay the flight while repairs were made. NASA disclosed the delay in an Aug. 29 Commercial Crew Program blog post and later said SpaceX had replaced the affected oxidizer valve, without providing further technical detail.¹²⁵

Watkins expressed appreciation to the ground crews for catching the problem before liftoff, saying she and her crewmates felt deep gratitude toward the teams on-site at the Cape, including SpaceX personnel, who managed to spot the vehicle's issue while there was still time to fix it.²

Final steps before launch

Officials from NASA and SpaceX gathered at Kennedy Space Center on Friday to conduct a Flight Readiness Review. Engineers plan to run a Falcon 9 engine test on Sunday, followed by a full launch-day dress rehearsal with the crew on Tuesday, before the rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40.²⁴

Watkins described the arrival as a milestone after a long training period: "Arriving here today for us as a crew represents both kind of the culmination and the beginning of a journey for us," she said, adding, "We've been training together as a crew for over a year now," and that the team is ready "to join the Expedition 75 crew on board the International Space Station."²

Mission goals

The mission, the 13th crew rotation NASA has flown with SpaceX under its Commercial Crew Program, is expected to last approximately six months. Once aboard, the astronauts will join the station's Expedition 75 crew.¹⁵

Crew members said the roughly six-month stay will include experiments intended to support future Artemis lunar missions. Watkins said she hopes her Earth observations from orbit could inform planning for lunar exploration, saying researchers could learn "what to expect when we are able to step foot" on the moon by studying such remote observations. Kutryk said a European Space Agency exercise device being tested on the station could also be adapted for use on the moon.¹