Space

Astronauts’ stay on station extend as relief crew’s launch delayed

Central Florida Public Media | By Marian Summerall

Published September 17, 2026 at 1:19 PM EDT

The four members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station display their mission plaque inside a training mockup of a space station module. From left are, Commander Jessica Watkins and Pilot Luke Delaney, both from NASA, and Mission Specialists Joshua Kutryk of CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Roscosmos.

The next crewed mission launching to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral has been delayed again. The launch date was originally set for early September, but now NASA and SpaceX are targeting a launch as soon as early October.

NASA and SpaceX delayed the launch of the Crew-13 mission due to a leak on the Dragon spacecraft. The members of the Crew-12 mission, which launched to the station in February will remain on board until Crew-13 arrives.

In a post on X, SpaceX announced that NASA and the commercial space company’s new launch window will “allow for completion of prelaunch activities, readiness reviews, and coordination of space station operations,” and noted that the leak detected earlier had been addressed.

Crew-12 includes NASA astronautsJessica Meir, the spacecraft commander, andJack Hathaway, the pilot alongside the European Space Agency’s astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

Speaking to media from the station Wednesday, Jessica Meir said she’s looking forward to returning back to Earth, but it's bittersweet.

“'I think the thing I'm looking forward to most is seeing my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter,” Meir said. “Of course, our loved ones are the things that we miss the most. I'm so looking forward to seeing nature again, feeling the breeze on my face, the wind rustling through the leaves, experiencing all those things that we don't have up here. But, I will very very much miss being weightless all the time and the incredible views that we have.”

Once the next crew arrives, Crew-12 will depart the station after a brief handoff period. They will make the journey home in the same SpaceX Dragon capsule that brought them to the station, splashing down off the coast of California.

Crew-13 will be SpaceX’s 14th human spaceflight mission for NASA’s commercial crew program. The company has launch other commercial astronaut missions to the station, too.

Crew-13 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, who will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot. The mission also includes Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov as mission specialists.