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NASA, SpaceX’s Crew-13 is onboard the ISS. After swapping places, Crew-12 could return Monday

Houston Public Media News 88.7

Published October 2, 2026 at 4:19 PM CDT

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov onboard, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

NASA and SpaceX's Crew-13 mission reached the International Space Station Thursday evening in record time. After a couple more hours, the Dragon spacecraft hatch was opened, and the ISS gained four new members on board.

"It's amazing and kind of ironic to think that it's such a short trip to get here because the journey to get here has been long," SpaceX Crew-13 commander Jessica Watkinssaid onboard the ISSThursday evening.

The SpaceX Crew-13 mission includes commander Watkins of NASA, pilot Luke Delaney of NASA, mission specialists Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Roscosmos as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, partnering with private space exploration companies like SpaceX.

Now, NASA and SpaceX are preparing for the return of Crew-12, which has been aboard the ISS since February. Their return to Earth could happen as soon as Monday, Oct. 5, pending the weather back on Earth.

SpaceX Crew-12 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, the European Space Agency's Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

On Sunday, Crew-12 will officially transition their mission responsibilities to Crew-13, and Crew-12 Commander Jessica Meir will hand over command of the ISS to Roscosmos Pyotr Dubrov, whose crew reached the ISS in July.

As of Thursday, Dana Weigel, who manages NASA's low Earth orbit missions, said initial surveys of the spacecraft and equipment Crew-12 will take back to Earth went well.

Crew-12 spent their time on the ISS researching pneumonia-causing bacteria, blood flow in spaceflight, and generation of intravenous fluids or IVs in space, among other things.

SpaceX Crew-12 and Crew-13 are part of the rotations under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, a public-private partnership that uses commercial space equipment to fly NASA-trained astronauts and international partners to the ISS. SpaceX and Boeing each have multi-billion dollar contracts with NASA under the Commercial Crew Program.