NASA will hold two news conferences on August 3 at Johnson Space Center to brief media on the upcoming SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. Mission leadership will provide an overview at noon EDT, followed by a crew panel at 2 p.m. EDT. This marks the final media availability before the crew travels to Kennedy Space Center for launch no earlier than mid-September. The mission will carry NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to orbit aboard a Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Watkins will command the mission and fly her second trip to the station, making her the first NASA astronaut to launch aboard Dragon twice. She spent 170 days on her previous flight during Crew-4 in 2022 and worked as a geologist on the Curiosity rover science team. Delaney, a former naval aviator and test pilot, and Kutryk, a Canadian fighter pilot and test pilot, will both make their first spaceflights as pilot and mission specialist respectively. Teteryatnikov, selected as a test cosmonaut in 2021, will also fly to the station for the first time.
The briefings will include representatives from NASA Headquarters, Johnson Space Center, the Canadian Space Agency, and SpaceX. International media must register by 5 p.m. July 21, while U.S.-based media has until 5 p.m. July 30 to register for in-person attendance. Virtual attendance requires registration by 10 a.m. on the day of the event. Media can request interviews following the crew panel by the July 30 deadline.
The launch is scheduled for Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40. NASA will stream both briefings live on its website.