NASA Schedules Briefings for SpaceX Crew-13 Mission to International Space Station

NASA and its international partners will hold two news conferences on Monday, August 3, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. These events are scheduled to discuss the forthcoming crew rotation mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The first briefing, starting at 12 p.m. EDT, will feature mission leadership providing an overview of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission. Following this, at 2 p.m. EDT, the crew members will discuss their training and mission preparations. This will be the final media availability for the Crew-13 team before they travel to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch. The events will be streamed live on NASA's website.

The Crew-13 mission is slated to transport NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to the orbiting laboratory. The crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch is targeted for no earlier than mid-September.

Jessica Watkins, who will serve as commander, was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. She grew up in Lafayette, Colorado, and holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied geological and environmental sciences. As a geologist, Watkins contributed to the Curiosity rover science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She previously flew to the space station on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission in 2022, spending 170 days in space. This upcoming mission will mark her second flight to the ISS and make her the first NASA astronaut to launch on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft twice.

Luke Delaney, the mission's pilot, was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021. A native of Florida, he earned degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of North Florida and aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. Delaney is a distinguished naval aviator and a test pilot who evaluated developmental aircraft systems. He also served as a research pilot at NASA’s Langley Research Center, supporting airborne science missions.

Media representatives planning to attend in person had specific deadlines for accreditation, with international media needing to respond by July 21 and U.S.-based media by July 30. Virtual attendees had a deadline of 10 a.m. on the day of the event. Requests for limited media interviews with crew members after the news conference also had a submission deadline of July 30.

According to NASA Breaking News, briefing participants include Joel Montalbano and Dana Weigel from NASA, Mathieu Caron from CSA, and Julianna Scheiman from SpaceX, alongside the four Crew-13 astronauts.