NASA and SpaceX officials have set out the plans for the upcoming Crew 13 mission to the International Space Station, speaking at a briefing from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. According to the coverage, the mission is set to launch perhaps in September, and officials described it as part of a busy and active period for the agency's low Earth orbit program.
Ahead of the crew's arrival, a series of spacewalks is on the schedule. According to the briefing, three spacewalks are planned in August. One of the tasks involves the removal and replacement of a Node 2 retroreflector, which officials said is critical for visiting vehicles like Crew 13 for navigation, rendezvous and docking with the station.
The makeup of the crew was also outlined. According to the briefing, the crew includes Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Josh Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. Officials noted that three of the flyers are first-time flyers, and that they would become the 296th, 297th and 298th visitors to the space station, approaching but not yet reaching the 300 mark.
The scientific goals of the mission span several areas of research. According to the briefing, the crew will help fight heart disease and Parkinson's disease by studying human stem cell derived tissues, work that officials said will help improve medicine, disease modeling and pharmaceutical testing. The research is among the highlights expected to begin during the mission.
Beyond the medical work, the crew will take on studies tied to long-term spaceflight. According to the briefing, they will explore crop production that is important for longer-duration missions, help researchers better understand blood flow abnormalities seen in space, and test new diagnostic medical equipment for monitoring crew health throughout the flight.
On the hardware side, officials expressed confidence in the readiness of the mission. According to the briefing, the same booster that will fly Crew 13 was flown on Crew 12, and no major issues are being tracked for this mission campaign. Officials said SpaceX had done a strong job getting the spacecraft, the rocket and the ground systems ready to support the flight.
The briefing also placed Crew 13 within a wider schedule of upcoming activity. According to the coverage, other planned missions this year include two Progress cargo missions, the SpaceX 35 Dragon cargo mission and a Northrop Grumman mission, while teams continue to work on returning the Starliner vehicle to flight. Officials added that the crew members themselves would speak at a later news conference about the mission.