NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission is scheduled to launch at 11:10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 1, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The four-person crew — NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov — will ride a SpaceX Dragon to the International Space Station for a long-duration science mission. The headline operational number: a planned 7-hour, 50-minute transit from launch to docking, which NASA says would be the fastest by a U.S. spacecraft in space station history. Docking is targeted for approximately 7 p.m. EDT at the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony module, with hatch opening and welcome remarks expected around 8:45 p.m. The mission timeline is tight and publicly mapped. A prelaunch news conference at 5 p.m. on September 30 will feature NASA associate administrator Lori Glaze, LEO Program manager Dana Weigel, CSA's Mathieu Caron, SpaceX's William Gerstenmaier, and a 45th Weather Squadron launch weather officer. A postlaunch press conference on October 1 at 12:45 p.m. will include NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and SpaceX's Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA Science and Dragon Programs. Once aboard, Crew-13 will conduct a brief handover with Crew-12, whose return to Earth is expected no earlier than Monday, October 5. The overlap period is minimal — a direct reflection of operational confidence in the crew rotation cadence that NASA and SpaceX have built over 13 missions. The broader structural story is the maturation of NASA's commercial crew program. NASA frames this explicitly: the agency has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective ISS transportation through partnership with American private industry. The international dimension persists — Roscosmos still has a seat on the Dragon, and CSA contributes crew — but the launch infrastructure is entirely commercial-American. Coverage will stream on NASA+ and multiple platforms, with live video from SLC-40 available approximately six hours before launch. Audio will also broadcast on VHF 146.940 MHz and UHF 444.925 MHz within Brevard County. Virtual attendance registration is open to the public, including a stamp for NASA's virtual guest passport. This is operational spaceflight running on schedule. No drama, no contingency headlines — just the 13th commercial crew rotation executing a faster transit profile than any prior U.S. mission to the station. The question is whether this cadence can sustain itself as station decommissioning approaches and commercial successors remain unproven.
