With six days remaining before liftoff, the spacecraft set to carry four astronauts to the International Space Station has now arrived at the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX announced Thursday that its Crew-13 Dragon spacecraft has reached pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The company shared NASA photos showing the capsule at Space Launch Complex 40 ahead of its upcoming flight to the station.
The company is holding to the October 1 launch target it announced this week, with liftoff scheduled for 11:10 a.m. ET (8:10 a.m. PT) and a backup opportunity on Friday, October 2, at 10:47 a.m. ET. It will mark the 13th operational human spaceflight of SpaceX’s Dragon program, launching aboard a Falcon 9 from SLC-40.
The Dragon capsule flying the mission previously supported the Crew-4 mission to the station. Its Falcon 9 first stage is flying for the third time, after previously launching Crew-12 and one Starlink mission, and will attempt to land at Landing Zone 40 after stage separation.
SpaceX’s mission page lists the four crew members as Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk and Sergey Teteryantnikov.
The rollout comes during a busy period for SpaceX’s launch schedule. NASA has already named the astronauts for the follow-on Crew-14 mission targeted for 2027, while Starship Flight 14 is targeting September 28 at Starbase. More details on the final launch preparations are expected in the coming days.
Six days before launch, the hardware is in position and the countdown continues toward October 1, when four astronauts will ride this Dragon to the International Space Station.
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