NASA Sets Briefings for SpaceX Crew-13 Mission to Space Station

NASA and its partners will hold two news conferences on Monday, August 3, to discuss the upcoming SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. The briefings will take place at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, with the mission overview at noon EDT and a crew news conference at 2 p.m. EDT. This will be the final media availability for the crew before they travel to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.

The Crew-13 mission will carry four astronauts to the orbiting laboratory: NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. They will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station no earlier than mid-September. This mission affects the crew members themselves, their families, and the international partners involved, as it continues the routine rotation of personnel on the space station.

This mission matters because it represents another step in NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which relies on private companies like SpaceX to transport astronauts. It also highlights the ongoing collaboration between NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and Roscosmos. For Jessica Watkins, this will be her second spaceflight, making her the first NASA astronaut to launch on a SpaceX Dragon twice. She previously spent 170 days on the station during the Crew-4 mission in 2022. For Delaney, Kutryk, and Teteryatnikov, this will be their first trip to space.

Specific details from the source include the dates and times of the news conferences: August 3 at noon and 2 p.m. EDT. The crew members are Jessica Watkins (commander), Luke Delaney (pilot), Joshua Kutryk (mission specialist), and Sergey Teteryatnikov (mission specialist). Watkins grew up in Lafayette, Colorado, and holds a doctorate in geology from UCLA. Delaney is a Florida native with a master's in aerospace engineering. Kutryk is from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, and has multiple master's degrees. Teteryatnikov graduated from the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2011.

Background from the source notes that Watkins was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017 and previously flew on Crew-4. Delaney was selected in 2021 and has a background as a naval aviator and test pilot. Kutryk was selected by CSA in 2017 and served as a CF-18 fighter pilot. Teteryatnikov was selected as a test cosmonaut in 2021 and has served since 2023. The mission will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, not from Kennedy Space Center's traditional pads.

Next steps include the news conferences on August 3, after which the crew will be available for limited media interviews. The launch is targeted for no earlier than mid-September. Media accreditation deadlines are July 21 for international media and July 30 for U.S.-based media attending in person, with virtual media needing to respond by 10 a.m. on the day of the event.