NASA AND SPACEX TARGET OCTOBER 1 LAUNCH FOR CREW-13 SPACE STATION MISSION

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 11:10am EDT on Thursday, 1 October, for the launch of the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. NASA scheduled lift-off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Four astronauts will fly aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Teams plan to complete final readiness reviews of the crew, the station, the spacecraft and the rocket before flight, NASA said. The crew is currently in quarantine at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

The crew comprises NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. One account named Watkins as commander and Delaney as pilot, with Kutryk and Teteryatnikov serving as mission specialists. After separating from the rocket, Dragon is expected to adjust its orbit to align with the station before docking at the forward-facing port of the Harmony module. Accounts differed on the expected docking time, with one putting it at around 7pm EDT and another at around 8pm EDT. One report said the journey from lift-off to docking could take under nine hours.

Once aboard, the astronauts are expected to join Expedition 75, a long-duration crew assignment involving scientific research, station maintenance and testing of technologies for future missions, according to NASA. NASA said it would provide live coverage of prelaunch, launch and docking activities across multiple platforms. NASA scheduled a prelaunch news conference for 5pm EDT, with Dr Lori Glaze, the agency's associate administrator for human spaceflight, among those taking part. NASA planned a postlaunch news conference for 12:45pm EDT. NASA said all timings remain subject to change based on real-time operations.