NASA and SpaceX have set 11:10 am ET on Thursday, October 1st, as the earliest launch opportunity for the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. The flight will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon Grace.

Delays Over

At the end of last month, NASA said it and SpaceX were adjusting the launch timeline for this mission because of an oxidizer leak in the Crew Dragon propulsion system, found during standard prelaunch processing at Cape Canavera. The mission had been targeting September 12th before the slip.

The schedule then firmed up in two steps. On September 16th, NASA and SpaceX said they were looking at early October after SpaceX replaced an oxidizer valve in Dragon’s propulsion system. With those repairs completed, the new launch date was set.

A Quick Flight

If the mission launches on October 1st, the Crew and Crew Dragon will reach Station in under nine hours. Docking is planned for roughly 8 pm that evening at the Harmony module’s forward-facing port. A same-day rendezvous keeps the crew’s time in the capsule short compared with longer phasing profiles.

Crew Notes

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins will command the spacecraft. NASA astronaut Luke Delaney will serve as pilot. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov round out the crew as mission specialists.

Once aboard, the four will join Expedition 75. The crew is currently in quarantine at Johnson Space Center in Houston and is scheduled to fly to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, September 26th.