Geologist-turned-astronaut Jessica Watkins will command SpaceX’s Crew Dragon on its 13th crew rotation to the International Space Station, NASA announced in April 2026, placing her at the helm of a four-person team drawn from three space agencies with a launch window opening no earlier than mid-September.
Joining Watkins are pilot Luke Delaney, who will make his first trip to orbit; Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk as mission specialist; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov as the second mission specialist. The crew is expected to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and spend approximately six months living and working 250 miles above Earth.
A veteran commander paired with a rookie pilot
Watkins is no stranger to the station. During Crew-4 and Expeditions 67 and 68, she spent roughly six months in orbit between April and October 2022, contributing to Earth science observations and routine station operations. That experience makes her one of a small number of active NASA astronauts who have already completed a long-duration ISS stay before being tapped to command a Dragon vehicle.
Her background in geology, earned through fieldwork and academic research before she joined the astronaut corps, sets her apart in a crew office dominated by military test pilots and engineers. Whether that expertise will shape the science priorities aboard Crew-13 remains to be seen; NASA has not yet published an experiment manifest for the mission.
Delaney, selected in NASA’s 2021 astronaut class, brings a test-pilot pedigree to the pilot seat, where he will handle rendezvous, docking, and abort procedures. Pairing a seasoned commander with a first-time flier in the cockpit is a deliberate crew-composition strategy NASA has relied on across earlier rotations, balancing institutional knowledge with fresh operational talent.
International partners stay in the mix
Kutryk and Teteryatnikov continue a cross-seat exchange arrangement that has kept international partners integrated into Commercial Crew flights since the program’s early missions. Under the deal, NASA and Roscosmos swap seats so that a cosmonaut flies on Dragon while a NASA astronaut periodically launches on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. The arrangement has persisted even during periods of sharp diplomatic tension between Washington and Moscow, though neither agency has publicly confirmed whether it will extend through the station’s currently planned end of operations around 2030.
For the Canadian Space Agency, Kutryk’s assignment underscores Canada’s ongoing role aboard the station, where the country’s Canadarm2 robotic arm remains one of the outpost’s most critical tools for cargo handling and external maintenance.
Where Crew-13 fits in the rotation schedule
Crew-13 follows the Crew-12 rotation announced in late 2025, maintaining a cadence of roughly two Dragon crew swaps per calendar year. Each incoming crew typically overlaps with its predecessor for several days aboard the station, allowing a structured handoff of ongoing experiments and maintenance tasks before the outgoing team splashes down.
The mid-September target puts the launch about five months away, a timeline consistent with how far in advance NASA has disclosed crew assignments for earlier rotations. That lead time allows coordinated training across partner agencies and gives the public a window into mission planning well before flight day.
With continuous habitation aboard the ISS stretching back to November 2000, Crew-13 will arrive during the station’s 26th year of uninterrupted human presence in low-Earth orbit. NASA and its partners are working toward keeping the outpost operational through 2030, after which the agency plans to transition to commercially operated space stations. That timeline means every remaining crew rotation carries added significance as the partnership enters its final chapter aboard the laboratory that helped define an era of international cooperation in space.
What NASA has not yet revealed
Several key details remain outstanding. NASA’s announcement confirmed names, roles, agency affiliations, and the approximate launch window but stopped short of detailing the specific experiments Crew-13 will conduct. Earlier missions have carried research portfolios spanning protein crystal growth, fluid physics, and Earth observation campaigns, but no official science plan has been published for this flight.
No public statements from the four crew members have accompanied the announcement. Personal reflections, training updates, and individual research interests typically surface closer to launch through crew press conferences and NASA media events. Backup crew assignments, if any exist, have also not been disclosed; NASA does not always publicly name alternates for Commercial Crew missions, and whether any of the four could be swapped before September for medical or scheduling reasons is an open question.
The fuller picture of what Crew-13 will accomplish in orbit will take shape over the coming months as NASA releases its science and operations plan. For now, the crew roster signals continuity: a blend of experience and fresh talent, wrapped in the international framework that has kept the station running for more than a quarter century.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
