The astronauts will be aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will hitch a ride to Earth orbit atop the commercial spaceflight company’s Falcon 9 rocket during a launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch is targeted for mid-September, according to NASA.
Meet the next group of astronauts headed to space
Here’s a look at the four astronauts NASA selected for the Crew-13 mission:
Jessica Watkins, a NASA astronaut, will serve as commander of the mission. A native of Colorado, Watkins is a geologist who will be making her second trip to space since being selected as an astronaut in 2017.Luke Delaney, a NASA astronaut, will be the pilot. A native of Florida, Delaney is a naval aviator who will be making his first trip to space since being selected as an astronaut in 2022.Joshua Kutryk, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, will be a mission specialist. Kutryk, a fighter pilot from Alberta, Canada, will be the first CSA astronaut selected for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.Sergey Teteryatnikov, a Roscosmos cosmonaut from Russia, is the second mission specialist. Teteryatnikov is making his first trip to space.
What astronauts are on the International Space Station?
Seven astronauts are currently living and working aboard the International Space Station.
The Crew-13 astronauts are due to replace the Crew-12 mission at the space station.
Those four astronauts – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, as well as the European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev – docked in mid-February at the orbital outpost and are due to depart a few days after their replacements arrive to allow for a handover period. In a deviation from standard protocol, that mission’s Crew-11 predecessors had departed before the new astronauts’ arrival due to an unprecedented medical evacuation.