NASA Announces SpaceX Crew-13 Mission Assignments
Summary: NASA has announced the crew assignments for the SpaceX Crew-13 mission, featuring four astronauts from three space agencies: NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. The mission is targeted for launch no earlier than mid-September 2026, marking an acceleration from the original November timeline.
Credit: NASA
NASA has announced the crew assignments for the SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. The mission will carry four crew members from three different space agencies: NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins (spacecraft commander) and Luke Delaney (pilot), Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk (mission specialist), and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov (mission specialist).
Upon arrival at the orbiting laboratory, Crew-13 will join the Expedition 75 crew for a long-duration science expedition. This flight represents the 13th crew rotation mission with SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
Notably, NASA has advanced the Crew-13 launch date from November to mid-September to increase the frequency of U.S. crew rotation missions to the space station. The crew will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars, while also benefiting people on Earth.
This will be the second spaceflight for Jessica Watkins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. A geologist by training, she studied the Martian surface and was a member of the Curiosity rover science team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.