NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 Set to Launch to ISS with International Crew

NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission is set to launch today, October 1, at 11:10 AM ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying three astronauts and one cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS). Livestream coverage will begin at 9:20 AM ET on NASA's YouTube channel, Netflix, Discovery+, X, NASA+, and Amazon Prime Video. The launch is part of NASA's regular crew rotation to the orbiting laboratory, but it includes several notable elements.

The spacecraft commander is Jessica Watkins, a geologist who previously flew on SpaceX Crew-4 and contributed to the Curiosity rover science team. The pilot is Luke Delaney, a research pilot from NASA's Langley Research Center, who is making his first trip to space. Other crew members include Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, also on his first spaceflight, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, who is visiting the ISS for the first time. Together, they will relieve the SpaceX Crew-12 crew, which had to briefly shelter in their capsule when an air leak was discovered on the station in June.

During their stay, the Crew-13 team is expected to conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations aimed at preparing humans for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars, according to NASA. The mission's planned trip from launch to docking is seven hours and 50 minutes, which NASA says will be the fastest by a US spacecraft in space station history once completed.

While ferrying crews to the ISS occurs on a regular cadence, this launch comes as NASA pursues its larger goal of returning humans to the lunar surface. The agency now does not expect to achieve that until 2028, but it completed the Artemis II lunar flyby mission on April 10 and plans to test lunar landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX during the Artemis III mission in 2027.

The Crew-13 mission underscores the ongoing international partnership in low Earth orbit, even as attention shifts toward deep space exploration. With multiple first-time fliers and a record-setting rendezvous, the launch represents a blend of routine operations and milestone moments. The livestream offers the public a chance to follow the journey, from liftoff to docking, across a variety of platforms.