NASA, SpaceX Complete Crew-13 Dry Dress Rehearsal

With the rocket on the launch pad, the four-person crew for NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station participated in a dry dress rehearsal Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, spent the morning in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, donning spacesuits and completing air leak checks. Once suited, they boarded vehicles and traveled to Space Launch Complex 40, where they entered the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will take them to the space station.

Crew-13 is scheduled to launch to the station no earlier than 11:10 a.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 1, for a long-duration science mission.

After Crew-13 arrives aboard the orbiting laboratory, NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 crew members will help familiarize the new crew with ongoing science and station maintenance activities for a smooth transition of operations. Following this brief handover, and pending weather conditions, Crew-12, including NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, will board its SpaceX spacecraft and head for a splashdown off the coast of California.

NASA's Commercial Crew Office has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is opening access to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, more science, and more commercial opportunities.

For more than 25 years, people have continuously lived and worked aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies that enable us to prepare for human exploration of the Moon as we prepare for Mars.

Jason Costa