SpaceX Targets 11:10 a.m. EDT Thursday to Launch NASA's Crew-13 Astronauts on an Eight-Hour Station Flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX and NASA aimed to launch four crew members to the International Space Station at 11:10 a.m. EDT Thursday, an eight-hour flight that would end the longest gap in U.S. crew launches in half a year.

Liftoff of the Crew-13 mission was set for 11:10 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with docking planned for about 7 p.m. A backup window opens Friday at 10:47 a.m. EDT if weather or a technical issue forces a delay. NASA said launch coverage would begin at 9:20 a.m. on NASA+, YouTube and the agency's other live channels. SpaceX planned its own webcast about an hour before liftoff.

The Falcon 9 is to carry a Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. Watkins is spacecraft commander. Delaney is pilot. Kutryk and Teteryatnikov are mission specialists. Watkins, a geologist who flew on Crew-4 and has worked on the Curiosity rover science team, is the only member of the four with prior spaceflight experience. The others are making a first trip to orbit.

NASA and SpaceX completed a launch readiness review and polled "go" to enter the count. The rocket was raised at the pad days earlier. This Falcon 9 first stage is on its third flight, after Crew-12 and a Starlink mission, and is scheduled to land at Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral after separation. The Dragon capsule previously flew the private Axiom Ax-4 mission.

The launch is the 13th operational crew rotation under NASA's contract with SpaceX. It was first targeted for Sept. 12 and scrubbed because of an oxidizer leak in the Dragon propulsion system. After that delay, Delaney said, "The numeral significance was not lost on us," and that the crew was "leveraging the heritage" of Apollo 13. The crew entered a final quarantine as the date slipped into October. No astronauts had launched from U.S. soil in the six months since the previous crew flight.

Thursday's trajectory is a short rendezvous. NASA has described the planned trip from launch to docking as about seven hours and 50 minutes, which would be the fastest by a U.S. spacecraft to the station once completed. Coverage of the approach is scheduled to pick up again in the late afternoon, with docking near 7 p.m. Eastern at the forward port of the Harmony module, if the timeline holds. After launch coverage ends, NASA planned audio of the crew talking with the station and mission control during the cruise.

The countdown follows SpaceX's standard crewed sequence. About 45 minutes before liftoff, the launch director verifies the team is go for propellant load. The crew access arm retracts around 42 minutes. Dragon's launch escape system is armed near 39 minutes. Loading of rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen on the first stage begins about 35 minutes out, with second-stage oxygen loading near 16 minutes. Engine chill starts around seven minutes. Dragon switches to internal power at five minutes. Final computer checks and tank pressurization come in the last minute.

Weather at the Cape remained the main variable on launch morning. An earlier planning figure put the odds near 70 percent favorable. A scrub would move the attempt to Friday's backup, about 23 minutes earlier than Thursday's target.

On board, the crew is assigned to a long-duration stay with Expedition 75, on the order of six months, with a return planned no earlier than March 2027 and a splashdown in the Pacific. NASA said the astronauts will run research and technology demonstrations aimed at future Moon and Mars missions as well as work that applies on Earth. The agency said the crew will explore crop production for longer flights, study blood-flow changes seen in space and test diagnostic medical equipment for monitoring crew health. They will also take over from the Crew-12 astronauts, who earlier this year sheltered in their capsule after an air leak was found on the station.

A leadership news conference was set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, the night before launch, with NASA human spaceflight associate administrator Lori Glaze, low-Earth orbit program manager Dana Weigel, Canadian astronaut office director Mathieu Caron and SpaceX vice president William Gerstenmaier. A post-launch briefing was listed for about 12:45 p.m. Thursday if the rocket flies on time.

For viewers, the practical window is the NASA broadcast from 9:20 a.m. Eastern through spacecraft separation, then the docking show in the evening. The same feed is carried on the agency's YouTube channel, NASA+ and partner streams. SpaceX's webcast starts closer to propellant loading. On-site viewing is from public areas around Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center, subject to security closures on launch day.

If Thursday's count proceeds, four people will be on their way to the station before noon on the East Coast, and at the dock before prime time. If it does not, the next try is Friday morning, with the same crew, the same rocket and a slightly earlier clock.