NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 Launch

0:00The billionaires in swine

1:00And here are the four crew members set to leave Earth in just under two hours, on a mission to push the boundaries of what humans can do in space and improve life here on Earth. Roger, go. We think about the challenges, technologies, and push the bounds of the science. There are some more ways that we can send humans into space the better it is for our country and for the planet. Ready to get to work. What an amazing view from the International Space Station. Wow, the spaceflight is a beautiful, simple humanity. Reach for these

2:04walkie-goles, work hard, and look what you can accomplish. Good morning and welcome to Kennedy Space Seder in Florida. I'm NASA's Megan Crews and you are watching the official launch broadcast for NASA's SpaceX Crew 13. With me this morning is NASA astronaut Zina Cardman. We are so lucky to have you here and we appreciate all the insight you're going to bring. Oh thank you Megan. I'm so excited to be here supporting crew 13 along with all of their family, friends, and the people who make this mission happen. Let's go. Yeah, you're super close with this crew. So we're going to talk a lot about them today. Again, this crew right here live at launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That's just next door to us here at Kennedy. Now they are inside their dragon spacecraft named Grace as the pad team wraps up work just outside. And Zina, they closed that side hatch door just about 20 minutes ago. That's exactly right. Yes, the teams closed the side hatch. We did some leak checks

3:04of the side hatch, some communications checks, and we're getting ready for this close-out team to depart the pad. And yes, we are targeting a lift-off time today of 11 10 a.m. Eastern time, powering them to the International Space Station will be this Falcon 9 rocket you see there. Weather is a watch item today, those you know. Absolutely. It always is and weather in Florida, especially can be a little bit unpredictable, but we will go when the time is right and we'll keep an eye on that weather this morning. Yes, absolutely. And this is going to be the second trip to the orbiting lab for our commander today. That's NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins. She's the third from the left as you see there on your screen. The rest of her crew, all first-time flyers, you have NASA astronaut Luke Delaney pilot in the second from the left. You have Canadian Space Agency astronaut Josh Kutrick. He's far right. He's our mission specialist as well as Ross Cosmos Cosmo Nutserge Teteviatnikov, also a mission specialist. He's to your far left. That's exactly right. This is a great crew. They've gotten to work together as a team and I'm so happy to be watching

4:06some of my friends launch this base today. Absolutely. And so here we are again about an hour, 47 minutes and counting from launch. Again, we're going to hear a lot about this crew, but first let's get you caught up on what's happened so far this morning as the crew prepared for launch. Now the day began inside astronaut crew quarters. That's here at Kennedy Space Center. You are looking specifically inside the suitup room, the same room where NASA astronauts have suited up for crew launches from Kennedy since Apollo 7 in 1968. SpaceX technicians helped each crew member into their custom pressure suits designed to protect them if dragon lost pressure during a launch or reentry. After everyone was dressed, they got a chance to chat with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman before taking part in a card game. Now this pre-launched tradition dates back decades as Commander Jessica heads a lose before they could leave for the pad. The idea there is to leave all the bad luck behind so only good luck follows the crew to space.

5:09There they are, Jessica losing. When that was over, they headed downstairs and out of crew quarters to greet family friends and supporters one final time before their flight. Lots of smiles, waves, then the crew got into their Tesla's with this fun license plate, lucky 13. I love that. And off they went to launch complex 40. The trip through Kennedy and onto Cape Canaveral Space Force Station took about 20 minutes and then once at the pad the crew looked up at the ride to space, pausing to take in this moment, Zena, probably an amazing experience for our first time flyers. Oh my gosh, yes absolutely. And for our repeat followers there is nothing about seeing your rocket on launch day that doesn't bring you joy and excitement. And then they took the elevator up, the launch tower to walk across the crew access arm and we watched as each ingress into dragon and got into their seats. The pad team made sure they were buckled in, connected to dragon's life support and communication systems. Then we watched as their seats were rotated into their position

6:14for launch and their suits were checked for any leaks. Now Zena here we are watching the rest live crew 13 about one hour 45 minutes and counting from launch. That's right. We've got a while to wait until it is T zero. But in the meantime the crew are taking a look at their displays, they're getting any updates from SpaceX about their spacecraft in the Falcon 9 rocket. And really just getting themselves focused and emotionally prepared for this exciting day ahead. Yeah we can see some of them holding or dropping some of their tablets. It has information on there that's important to them right. That's right and you'll notice everything is tethered so that they would not actually drop it. Definitely important to keep everything hands and arms inside the vehicle. All right so right now you can be part of our crew 13 launch coverage. We're inviting you to send your questions about this mission by dropping them in the comments or tagging at NASA. Zena as you can tell a lot a lot of knowledge here so she's going to answer your questions live

7:18as we countdown to launch. And plus we actually have an online poll that we invite you to add your vote to. Just head to our Twitch feed to weigh in on this question. The question is how would you like to spend time aboard the space station? Would you step outside for a spacewalk? Some are sought through the station, run science experiments or enjoy views of Earth. Oh my goodness I'm not sure that I could pick any of those. I know we'd want to do them all. Shouldn't it to be an option that says? All of the above? Yeah yeah that's my choice. Well be sure to vote again on NASA's Twitch page will reveal the results at the end of the broadcast. Speaking of again another check of the clock one hour 43 minutes to launch has promised a little more about our crew members today. First up NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins again commander of crew 13. The Colorado is a geologist who before becoming an astronaut worked at NASA's Ames Research Center and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at JPL. She was part of the science team studying data from NASA's curiosity

8:22rover which has been exploring Mars since 2012. Then NASA came calling selected Watkins as an astronaut candidate in 2017. She flew to space in 2022 as a mission specialist on crew four. Her flight on crew 13 will make her the first NASA astronaut to fly on two SpaceX Dragon missions. Another fun fact Watkins is actually a former star rugby player. You can see this video here. Go go go. This was in college. She helped her team win a national championship and she says actually that the teamwork of rugby is a lot like human spaceflight. Oh I totally agree. I think teamwork is really one of the most important traits that we have as astronauts you really have to work together. Not only the crew of four launching to space but the enormous team of people who make this mission happen. Yeah really bring your expertise to the table because you can't do it alone. You need the team. Absolutely. Next up crew 13 pilot NASA astronaut Luke Delaney. He grew up in Florida and has spent his career flying. First with the Marine Corps as a naval aviator flying combat

9:26missions in support of operation and during freedom. He later became a test pilot and instructor evaluating new aircraft systems and training other pilots. He was also a research pilot at NASA's Langley Research Center flying research missions to search study Earth's atmosphere and oceans. By the time NASA selected him as an astronaut in 2021 Delaney had logged more than 3900 hours in 48 different aircraft. This will be his first spaceflight. I'm so happy to see Luke flying today. Luke was in the class selected after my own class. I've gotten a chance to train with him and work with him and he's just incredibly kind as well as he is technically competent. Just an awesome teammate. Yeah Jessica has often said that what she loves about Luke is that he has a great ability to really pinpoint the questions that we should be asking at any given time so really helps. Just make sure that everyone understands his on the same page about what we're looking at. Yeah great person to have by your side as a pilot for today's launch. And then we have Canadian Space Agency

10:28astronaut Josh Kutrick. Now Kutrick and Watkins they were actually in the same astronaut class both graduating together in 2020. Kutrick is also a first-time flyer. He grew up on a cattle farm in Alberta and later became a fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force flying military missions around the world. He then became a test pilot evaluating new aircraft and technologies for the Canadian military. Fun fact about him, he and his wife are expecting their third child while he'll be in space. What an amazing challenge but I know Josh and his family are ready. It takes a team of support to make something like this happen and I think the same is true for raising a family just awesome. Yeah there have been a lot of questions obviously about what kind of preparations or discussions have been had prior to this happening obviously to support the couple. Yeah absolutely and we're very lucky that we have great communications from the International Space Station. So he'll have plenty of opportunities to call and to have video conversations with his

11:33family back home. And actually not the first NASA astronauts to welcome a baby while they are on their mission to the space station. This is very true. I former crewmate actually Mike Fink on one of his previous missions had the same. Absolutely and Randy Brisonick as well. Oh yeah. Yes. Yep. Yep. And rounding out today's crew Ross Cosmos Cosmonaut Sir Sergey Tetsariyatnikov, mission specialist on crew 13. This will also be his first space flight. Tetsariyatnikov is an engineer who graduated from the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg in 2011 specializing in ship power plant operations. Before becoming a cosmonaut he worked in naval engineering including operations aboard undersea vessels and in specialized engine rooms. He was selected to join Ross Cosmos Cosmonaut Corps in 2021 and has been a test cosmonaut since 2023. Yes he is a great cosmonaut wonderful engineer. I had the opportunity to share a dinner with him on his first training mission to the US in Houston,

12:34Texas and so I'm thrilled to see him today for his first space flight. Yeah again all four of them live inside the Dragon spacecraft on Launchpad 40. Really exciting time as I'm sure they're watching the clock tick down. Most definitely. So now that you've learned more about our crew 13 crew I'd like to tell you a little bit more about Zina as we've been saying she is part of the same astronaut class as Jessica and Josh we actually have a photo of all of them here. That's so great. So again they really know each other and can speak so well about each other. Her first flight you can see here commander of crew 11 that mission launched last year she logged 167 days in space. While on the space station Zina helped conduct hundreds of hours of science including research into how microgravity affects our bones and how the human body changes in space. She also helped test new technologies for future missions to the moon and Mars. Zina has her bachelor's degree in biology and her master's degree in marine sciences both from the University of North Carolina. Her research studied how

13:35microorganisms make and use energy in environments from Antarctica here to hydrothermal vents. Can you talk a little bit more about that? That's fascinating. Oh yeah I absolutely love the research I got to do studying how life on earth is affected and affects the geochemistry of the environment around us but really loved the fieldwork that I had the opportunity to do as well. Is that something that you wanted to study because you knew that there would be connections that you can bring to your work now at NASA? I was most especially interested in modern earth and ancient earth but I think it's more the operational analogues that I've gotten to bring to NASA how to go to these very far away remote places and do research not only for myself but also for people teams of people who can't be there with me. That's amazing you guys the astronaut corps has such diverse backgrounds it's great to see and again a wealth of knowledge here with Zina so that's why don't forget send your questions to her by tagging at NASA or dropping your questions in the comments section where you are watching. Now as a team one of the very first things crew 13 did was design their mission

14:37patch so let's take a look at that now this patch looks at the future of space exploration while also honoring its past so first off you might notice it bears a striking resemblance to the Apollo 13 mission patch. Absolutely we have a gold dragon instead of gold horses the dragon's tail is wrapped around the earth this is highlighting all of the teams around the world who make human space flight possible. And the crew also said that they felt like the dragon's wings it kind of connects earth the moon the international space station Mars just all the things that we're doing as an agency. That's right and the gold stars that you see represent the crews families and support systems. Yeah I know Zina your family was such a huge support system to you as you went through yes the very rigorous training of becoming an astronaut and then training for a mission. Very much yeah I think we are all supported by family and friends at home and when we get to fly this mission it's really the the family at home who I think bear the burden of of this choice to explore so we're

15:38very very grateful. And crew 13's mission patch is now on a wall inside crew quarters to commemorate their launch. This is another pre-launch tradition where they stick their patch on the wall and sign around it. I love these traditions that are associated with spaceflight and so cool to see Jessica signing the wall that she also signed a few years ago with crew four. Yeah there's their signatures and it's just such a great tradition to take part of going all the way back to the earliest human spaceflight. Team minus one hour 35 minutes and counting. Crew 13 Zina of course trains very extensively together for this mission. Yeah that's right training starts many months or in some cases years prior to a mission so we just heard that call out that the crew the pad team is to put the team to put the crew on a exciting milestone for the day. Yeah so that means that only the crew is left at the pad now. That's momentarily. That's right yes yes so these teams that help to

16:42close out the spacecraft are now exiting and the crew remained on board the rocket. And some of the video we are watching is some of the training that the crew took part in obviously in a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft as well as a mock up of the International Space Station where they learned things like emergency egress and also here we're watching video of them prepare to train for a spacewalk. Yes, spacewalk training is one of the most rigorous aspects of the training that we do and it's something that no astronaut really starts with a background in we train at the neutral buoyancy laboratory in Houston Texas. This is a giant swimming pool which is a great environment to practice being weightless. Yeah it's a great asset to have again at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Crew 13 is going to live and work aboard the space station for about six months and so of course when you pack for a long work trip like that Zeta of course again people would bring special reminders of help. Oh very much yeah it's great that you don't really have to worry about what close to

17:43pack or what food to pack that's already sent to the space station for you and so those momentos from home and gifts that you might have for your family teammates are really the most important thing. We don't get a lot of cargo we get about a kilogram and a half each that we share inside the volume of roughly a shoe box. Wow that's not a lot. No it's not a lot but that means that you have to make really important choices and things that are really deeply meaningful to you. So what a Jessica decides to bring? I've heard that Jessica's bringing some toys and games to play with her three-year-old daughter is a way to stay connected back home things like puzzles, play-doh books. I love that. And I think she also has a field notebook that's been passed down through all of the astronaut geologists it sounds like. That's right yeah it's a long line of not many names from Jack Schmidt of the Apollo era through Drew Foistle, Jessica Watkins and actually more recently another geologist Lauren Edgar who's here supporting Launch Today as well. I just love this tradition. Yeah and then Luke. Luke is bringing some things belonging to his parents. That's right he's

18:47flying his dad's dog tags who sadly passed away. Justice he started training as an astronaut candidate in 2022. What a lovely beautiful way to honor him. And then his mom made a rosary that Luke is also flying on this mission. That's beautiful. And then Josh is bringing a family heirloom. This is really cool as well. Yeah a hundred-year-old pocket watch that's been passed down through his family. I think that's an incredible tradition and an important piece of equipment actually that comes in handy on the space station. And Serge he's going to be bringing photos. Photos of friends and family and then books as well about the history of his country. And so I think he wants to be reminded of all of the important moments of his life and how that fits into a longstanding history. One hour 31 minutes and counting until Dragon flies crew 13 to the International Space Station. Again we are inside the Dragon spacecraft live and from left to right we have Mission Specialist

19:48Sergei Tetaryatnikov. Pilot Luke Delaney, Commander Jessica Watkins, and Mission Specialist Josh Kutray. Now Zina teams are now approaching the launch escape health check that's expected in about a minute and do the math for me. It's like the internet. It's really good. So yes that's expected here soon and this is obviously an important step. This is a critical safety feature for the team. Yeah that's right. This launch escape system would take the crew to safety if ever needed to separate from the rocket and so that will be armed before we fuel the rocket and it will stay armed until they are safely in orbit. So this is a really important piece of safety. The vehicle is designed to be able to trigger this automatically if needed but the crew also can manually engage. We've never needed to use it for a crew dragon but again what folks do in

20:51human space flight is just try to think about all the possibilities and be ready for it and to train you guys so if something does happen it just is second nature. Yeah absolutely and we love to have redundancy and backup plans and a backup to the backup. Again a beautiful shot of the pad here. We do see some clouds in the sky there. Again watch item for us weather making sure that hopefully we find a hole in the clouds here to be able to launch at 11 10 am eastern time today. Yep we'll be keeping an eye on the weather for sure. I remember on my crew's first launch attempt the weather actually looked beautiful and then at the last minute we had one little cloud and on the second day I think we found the one hole in the sky so you never know. Yeah that's true. So we'll see again we'll be watching that as well as watching the clock but so far so good aside from the weather looking really good in terms of the milestones that

21:53get us to launch we last heard in an update to the crew that teams have a margin of about five minutes so if there are any issues they do have time built into the schedule already to work through anything. Yeah at all of these stages along the way there's a lot of buffer built into this timeline so even though we're doing great so far we've got plenty of margin if we needed to troubleshoot anything. Now we invited you to send us any questions about this mission so let's take a few of those now. How long does the crew quarantine for? The crew quarantine for two weeks prior to launch. The first week of that you can actually quarantine at home so you can be with your family in your home and then you fly to the Cape to Cape Canaveral here in Florida and you spend the second half of your quarantine here actually on site at Kennedy Space Center. Let's take another question now and any zero G indicators during the launch? Yeah this is one of my favorite traditions in space flight.

23:04The crews get to choose what will be there what we call zero G indicator that's usually a small stuffed animal or something that's symbolic for the crew and it's on a little tether and the idea is that once you are on orbit and wait lists this little toy can be floated around, passed around the cabin as an indicator that you are indeed wait lists. Absolutely great questions guys keep them coming by dropping them in either the comments section or tagging at NASA you know the drill by now right and then remember to vote in our twitch poll here's that question again how would you like to spend time aboard the space station so go on to again twitch and then vote and we will share the results later in the show. One hour 27 minutes and counting so let's introduce you now to NASA's Sandra Jones live inside Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Sandra that's for flight controllers continuously monitor those aboard the space station.

24:04Thanks Megan that's right and welcome to Mission Control Houston at the Johnson Space Center where the team will be monitoring the launch of the 13th rotational crew mission to the International Space Station for NASA and SpaceX. After the docking and hatch opening later this evening crew 13 will join Expedition 75. An expedition is a long duration crew rotation aboard the space station and marks a dedicated mission to space research maintenance and testing. This current expedition Expedition 75 began in July and will continue into the spring of 2027. When crew 13 docks to the International Space Station there will be a total of 11 crew members on board representing four different space agencies including NASA the European Space Agency the Canadian Space Agency and Roscosmos. Once on board crew 13 will complete a safety briefing and begin getting adapted to the microgravity environment of the space station before jumping right in to continue the science and technology

25:08demonstrations taking place every single day in the orbiting labs unique microgravity environment. In the coming months the entire space station crew will continue many operations enabled by upcoming cargo flights to the space station. Those missions including NASA's SpaceX 35 mission and NASA's Northrop Grumman 25 mission are set to deliver thousands of pounds of cargo and research supplies to the crew on station. Speaking of science what scientists learn from experiments conducted in microgravity not only benefits life here on earth but could also be key for future missions to the moon and eventually Mars. Let's take a closer look at this type of crucial space station research. The International Space Station isn't just a symbol it's a powerhouse of cutting edge science constantly revealing secrets that defy earth's limitations and drive us farther into the cosmos. Our mission is research and science we have experiments mounted on the outside

26:10of the station that are looking at earth we study our own bodies and how they react to space to weightlessness to radiation and that helps not only us go on further in future missions but also helps for medical research back home and then we study lots of different things as well like material combustion all sorts of things that help us understand life back on earth. Yeah microgravity doesn't play by the rules it flips them upside down transforming how liquids flow how flames burn and unraveling biological mysteries for our eyes. I saw some hard tissues beating in space and it was incredible. So, Tommy see that top one beating looks like happy heart cells. But we're not just along for the ride we're explorers diving headfirst into the challenge and harnessing the power of this unparalleled platform just as we have been for decades. We're on a relentless quest for answers seeking to understand the intricate workings of the human

27:14body in space and ensuring future crews stay safe on their daring journeys beyond earth's orbit. The human aspect of human space exploration is always going to be very important for decades to come. And when it comes to technology we're not waiting around we're discovering new ways to grow crops in harsh environments and engineering innovations to tackle earth's greatest challenges. We have amazing technology that allows us to recycle water and create water for us to drink. It's delicious. Microgravity isn't just a curiosity it's a game changer in the fight against diseases back on earth paving the way for breakthroughs that benefit us all and enabling new economic opportunities in space. Welcome Axiom 3 on board the International Space Station. From our vantage point more than 200 miles above earth we are not just spectators we're gaining unprecedented insights into the world we call home and we're sharing our findings openly. We're not just achieving

28:18results today we're sparking inspiration in future generations of explorers and embracing the power of global collaboration as we reach for the stars. What was your favorite experiment on the International Space Station? Toby great question my favorite experiment was the one that I got to eat. It was us growing hats chili peppers in our plant habitat. And as we soar through space at 17,500 miles per hour each moment is a step closer to unlocking the mysteries of our earth our universe and propelling our pioneering spirit even farther into space. So come along for the ride aboard the International Space Station. Now looking at this mission specifically crew 13 will study human stem cells derived tissues as part of research for use in disease modeling and pharmaceuticals. This could aid in

29:22potentially treating diseases that impact millions of people around the world like heart disease and Parkinson's. They'll also be continuing human research related to blood flow and growing plants in space. We are looking forward to all of the groundbreaking research that will be done during this mission but for now I will send it back to Megan at KSC to tell you a bit more. Hey thanks Sandra she mentioned that the crew will be growing plants in space for more than a decade astronauts have used dedicated growth chambers like this one to grow and harvest fresh vegetables on the space recently crew 13 visited Kennedy's plant processing facility to learn how they will push that plant research in two directions. First the crew will help install a new growth chamber called O'Halo 3 you see that there to see if we can grow and harvest but also replant food. Earlier chambers supported only one growth cycle and second crew 13 will continue testing how crops grow outside of those growth chambers using simple plant pillows like the ones you see here. They get to customize

30:28what they want to grow where they want to grow it you know they're going to be measuring lights for us they're going to get some data to us so we can understand the ability of plants to grow in a diverse environment and how you know adaptable they are to the ISS environment. Zina of course the goal is to learn how to grow fresh food continuously in space. Yeah exactly and this is something that will become increasingly important as we prepare to go for longer missions go to the moon to stay and eventually go beyond to Mars. T-minus one hour 20 minutes in counting time now to hear from the crew themselves. First up Commander Jessica Watkins what she tells her daughter about crew 13. What I love about space exploration is being a part of something bigger than myself. It is something that unites all of us as humans because it speaks to something that is intrinsic within us this desire to explore this desire to understand the limits of human capability and really

31:36forces us to come together because it is not possible to do it alone. My name is Jessica Watkins and I'm the commander for NASA's SpaceX crew 13 mission to the International Space Station. I voiced pretty young that I was interested in being an astronaut probably around the age of nine. I was part of an after school program after school enrichment program at Judy Resnick Elementary School and I had asked my parents about who she was and what her legacy was and that's when I first understood that going to space could be a career and with something that I wanted to pursue. I grew up in Boulder, Colorado right at the foothills of the Flat Irons mountains. Growing up there I didn't fully realize, didn't fully appreciate how much beauty I was able to behold every day but I do think that it sparked something in me because it wasn't until I went off to college and a couple of years into college that I found geology. They remember learning about planetary accretion, the process of small dust particles coming together to create the planets

32:38and I was absolutely hooked from there. The idea of getting to study the surfaces of other planets in particular in addition to Earth has just captivated my imagination ever since. Training together as a crew is one of the most important aspects of training leading up to the mission. This time I am coming for my second time and also am in the role of commander. For me that means thinking about how we can optimize together as a team, always thinking about what my crewmates might need in order to be able to perform at their best. NASA is involved in so many different missions. The International Space Station of course where we are able to do just incredible science. At the same time we are also starting our missions to the Moon of course with the Artemis program to be able to do both of those in parallel and have them work hand in hand both trading lessons and technologies both ways is absolutely incredible and we'll set us up with an amazing foundation to continue to go out all

33:38the way to Mars. There is an innate human desire to go out and see what is around the corner and I think that comes from a desire to understand to push to our limits and really find out who we are in the process of doing that. Now crew 13 pilot Luke Delaney and what inspired him to become an astronaut. For me wanting to be an astronaut started as a child. I got to see space shuttle launches. I lived close enough to where we could catch a few of those and it was just really inspiring. I think that desire has always been there in the background throughout my life and it just really synced up and lined up nicely with desires for engineering, aviation and exploration. My name is Luke Delaney and I'm the pilot for NASA Space X crew 13 mission to the International Space Station. I grew up in Central Florida. It's a relatively small town to bury Florida. I got to spend a lot of time doing team sports playing baseball was a big part of my life. Launched a lot

34:40of model rockets, did a lot of science projects and it just was really interested in those aspects. I'm an outdoor person and I think that's where it started. There's rivers. My dad and I would always go fishing on the lakes. There's springs. There's everything beaches aren't far away. So I spent a lot of time outdoors and it was a big part of my childhood. I went to the University of North Florida and did a mechanical engineering degree there and then I also did a Naval post-graderate school of masters and aerospace engineering. Enlisted in the Marine Corps early at 18 years old and then got through a commissioning program and stayed in the aviation room and the Marine Corps flying C-130s did a few deployments and then I got picked up for a test pilot position so I did test pilot projects for a bit. Went over and started instructing as a test pilot and then found an opportunity at NASA Langley that popped up and I transitioned over to there. I got to participate in a lot of their airborne science programs. Get a better understanding for how NASA operates. I really set the stage I think for transitioning into the astronaut role. This is truly an exciting time when you see NASA and everything that's happening in lower authority and ramping up for

35:44moon and Mars missions. You see not just the human space flight of aspects but you see before our launch we got the Grace Room and Telescope that's going to be launch in and going out to identify and collect even more information on our universe. All of these things, NASA's working towards for deep space exploration and these are the building blocks as we go to the moon and beyond. This for me feels like a culminating moment. I've spent a lot of my lifetime training in different environments building an engineering background, building an aviation a test pilot background. Also the theme is gratitude. Extremely grateful to have an opportunity like this. I'm grateful for all the support I've had from family and friends and I'm looking forward to support Expedition 75. Next up Canadian Space Agency astronaut and crew 13 mission specialist Josh Kutrick and what the International Space Station means to him. Anything positive that humanity is accomplished at some

36:44level has come from this never-ending desire to explore. That's the only way that we go forward and get better. I'm Josh Kutrick and I'm a mission specialist for NASA's SpaceX crew 13 mission to the International Space Station. I grew up in a cattle farm. We raised Red Angus Beef cattle. This is about a hundred miles east of the city of Edmonton. It's small town Canada. I drove about 30 miles to go to school. Really small, really isolated but at the same time as a child just an absolutely awesome place to experience childhood. I still go to this place. I try to go there at least twice a year. It's a very special place to me in my heart. I loved physics and high school. I did love space. I love this idea of exploring. I wasn't going to be an astronaut on a high school and it wasn't clear to me that I would ever be an astronaut. So my strategy was to sort of try to do things that were like that that still fulfilled some of those early passions

37:46I had. I found a conduit to that and that was flying. I studied mechanical engineering. I started flying as a very young teenager basically. And eventually I ended up joining the Air Force. Flu F18s operationally as a fighter pilot. A number of masters programs had become a test pilot and then I was working as an experimental test pilot for the Canadian Air Force when I was selected. To me space is opportunity for a better future. I don't think we've ever seen things on a technology level move as fast as we're seeing them move now. I mean look at what we're doing on ISS. 25 years ago we didn't know how we were going to build this but we've done it and we've had continuous human presence there now for over two decades. It's this amazing achievement of Canadian but also with our partners innovation and invention and technology development. To me the space station is this hugely beneficial practical thing. It's a floating laboratory where we can do complex science for the good of humankind that we cannot do anywhere else but more maybe philosophically

38:51it's a marvel of what we can do. It's sort of like this beacon in the sky for this generation and all the ones that will follow speaks to that question of hey this is what we can do when we work together. And finally Ross Cosmos Cosmerat Sergei Teteriatnikov on his first flight to the International Space Station. I was in the city of mineral water and I finished school there too. I was in the childhood dream to become a military maricom and after school I started the military engineering institute. After

39:53the completion of the institute I went to the University of Ocean Flot in various activities and the importance of my duty was on the underwater boat I was an engineer and I learned about the challenges of cosmonauts I tried my own efforts and I got to go to the airport now I am on the stage of the preparation for the flight with the mission of the 13th. In my space space I especially like the sound of new technology, new technologies, and the new people. For example, with my crew I started to work literally half a year ago for me this is a great discovery, a great experience that I will take all the remaining time. Between the International Space Station I can describe how a grand-drawn technical object I as an engineer I would like to be in a biological way, I would like to turn the

40:55distance and such possibilities. I already know my program and flight. Plus I love geography and experiments in learning the Earth's surface and various geographical objects for me will be very interesting. Take a look at that clock there one hour ten minutes and counting from lift-off of the Falcon 9 from launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station right now, crew 13 inside the dragon which is the spacecraft right at the top there. See what is the crew focused on right now they were briefed on some watch items that teams are working. Yeah really the biggest watch item right now is weather. We have good weather all the way up the Atlantic coast which is important for launch but right here in Florida it's a little bit something to keep an eye on so we're expecting update any minute now actually we were hoping things would clear up by right about now. Yeah weather obviously very important you know when you launch a rocket into the sky

42:00that can trigger things like lightning and they want to make sure that that doesn't happen so they're a launch weather criteria that they keep an eye on. That's exactly right yeah things like lightning wind and we have a great team of people whose job is to focus on making sure we launch in good conditions. And so our launch weather officers who are monitoring today's launch they had said right now it looks like we might be no go but they were actually expecting to have another conversation about this right now so again you see that Zina and I are wearing headsets this is our way of being able to monitor some of the mission audio loops that teams are using to communicate with one another so if we hear an update about the weather we'll of course share it with you as soon as possible. Absolutely and we've gotten lots of great updates all throughout the morning the crew heard from Core at SpaceX that they had a good hatch leak check and everything on their spacecraft is looking really good for today so good news. Perfect also good news for

43:02still getting more questions from you guys on social media so let's take some now. Any spacewalk scheduled for this mission Zina? Yes we do have some spacewalk scheduled coming up we always have a dynamic situation on board the space station and so exact dates are TBD but really excited to see what would be first spacewalks for this crew 13 and on board they'll be joining Anil Menon who has several spacewalks under his belt already. And spacewalks are to you know obviously maintain the orbiting lab also sometimes they put science experiments outside the space station. Yeah really neat platform that we have on the International Space Station for research but then also yes we have lots of planned upgrades or if anything needs to be repaired on the outside of the space station we have the ability to go outside and make those repairs or upgrades robotically or with humans or sometimes a combination of both. Let's squeeze in one more

44:05question here. With CRS 35 also on deck orbital traffic management is going to be tight next month so are we looking at direct or at a direct or indirect handover with crew 12? We're looking at a direct handover with crew 12. Crew 12 is on board the International Space Station right now and so crew 13 is launching to meet them they'll have hopefully a few days of overlap on board the space station where they will transfer knowledge and transfer equipment before a crew 12 on docs and splashes down. Senior great again keep on sending her questions tester guys tester by sending them wherever you're watching either in the comments section or by tagging at NASA. We now have a special guest joining us for lunch this morning. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is with NASA's Tony Hatomio. Good lunch day to you both. Hey thank you Megan and Administrator Isaacman thank you so much for joining us today you know as crew 13 gets ready to head off to the International Space Station

45:07can you let us know why the space station is still such an important part of NASA's mission today? Of course and by the way have to compliment I love the jacket looking great. See a lot of similarities with some of those spacesuits that we're seeing in Dragon right now. The International Space Station is obviously still critical I mean if you know the research that there this crew is about to undertake as they go on I mean a lot of it relates to long duration human spaceflight missions that will go beyond the International Space Station specifically a lot of clot formulation they're doing some work on but also this is besides just being a orbiting laboratory it's also like our technical proving ground the space suits that the Artemis IV crew will wear on the lunar surface we're going to be doing demonstrations of with them with them on the International Space Station in 2027 maybe early 2028 a good opportunity to get comfortable with the suit maybe rolling some last minute improvements before people are walking on the moon again. Very important indeed now we saw you got a chance to speak with the crew before they headed out to the pad can you let us know what you got what he had to tell them? Oh yeah it was it was a great conversation so we there are SpaceX rolled in some improvements

46:09in their IVA suits and so we had an opportunity to exchange some chats about what they liked about that there are these these were positive improvements obviously Jessica is born this is not her first time in a SpaceX suit and I also said make sure to text me your your delivery order for splash down so make sure we get the the cheeseburgers out on the ship for them. That's very kind of you you know you mentioned this is going to be Jessica Watkins second time aboard Dragon of first for NASA astronauts but you yourself have also had that privilege of flying aboard Dragon twice you know what was that like are there any differences or anything that Jessica should be aware of? Oh you know what I I suspect although we didn't have a chance to chat about it the nice thing about when you're when you're growing up twice you you're generally familiar with all of the sounds and all the sensations and you you're able to stay ahead of the rocket and as a result you you have more time available to look at the expressions on your on your crewmates to hear them the joy that they're having for their first experience right that was honestly what I was looking forward to most when we made it on orbit was to see the on my second trip to see the reactions on all my my crew

47:11members faces they realize that they have arrived yeah I love that we're very much looking forward to see what Jessica's thoughts are as well you know this year 2026 has already brought a lot of groundbreaking and exciting missions administrator what else can we look forward to especially in the new year to come yeah well this has been a great year right I mean crew 11 NASA responded super fast to bring them back we launched crew 12 early on that we have Artemis 2 what a glorious mission that was six astrophysics missions including obviously Nancy Grace Roman launch which was spectacular the year is not done we got a Falcon heavy coming in December that will be the first moon base mission or launch avoid your astrobotic mission to the lunar surface but then once you get in 27 I mean we are going to start stacking up these moon base missions not to mention it will be a huge year for Artemis 3 I mean three most powerful rockets in the world launching here at Kennedy Space Center as we get really comfortable with Orion and our test landers in Earth orbit and set up for 28 and 28 that's going to be another big year a lot of exciting things ahead administrator Isaac man thank you so much for joining us we'll send it back over to our host desk thank you

48:13hey thank you to you both and yes you heard him mention our moon base where astronauts would live and work on the lunar surface he announced those plans just a few months ago and in that short time we have moved quickly to make this ambitious goal a reality this is the moment where we should all start believing again now bound for the moon America is returning to the moon to build a moon base NASA has selected blue origin astral lunar outpost congratulations to astrobotic firefly duty machines great progress being able to see moon base elements getting to the finish line it's just awesome phase one is all about getting to the moon alive we're going to experiment with new technologies and we're going to actually start the infrastructure in this phase that goes from now to 2028 we want to learn we want to experiment and we're going to build on the knowledge American astronauts will return to the lunar surface for America no aim is too high no

49:16journey is too far no challenges too tough we will launch our robotic landers our rovers and begin establishing that enduring presence on the lunar surface the moon base because this time we are going back to stay and to learn more about this initiative visit nasa.gov slash moon base again you see that they're on your screen nasa.gov slash moon base really exciting to see what has been accomplished again in such a short amount of time now one of the most well-known jobs for an astronaut is performing a spacewalk so for more on that let's send it back to Sandra Jones at Johnson Space Center in Houston thanks and welcome back to mission control Houston we are now approaching the one hour mark to lift off of nasa.gov space x crew 13 mission following there about eight hour rendezvous this these four astronauts will arrive at the international space station and will join the expedition 75 crew who have been busy inside and out of space

50:19members of expedition 75 recently completed a series of spacewalks four in fact in less than a month as part of ongoing space station maintenance repairs and upgrades of note one of those spacewalks was done to install a new planar reflector used as part of docking operations space x's dragon spacecraft named grace that crew 13 is launching on today will use this very reflector to hone in on ahead of docking later today crew 13 as all astronauts are completed training in preparation to conduct spacewalks to date 284 spacewalks have been completed outside the station for assembly upgrade and maintenance now to discuss spacewalks and the training the crew does before space light let's check out this video featuring nasa flight director Mike Lamors hi i'm mike lamors a flight directorate nasa's jonsense space center in heuston texas and let's talk about spacewalks

51:20EVA stands for extra vehicular activity the complicated term for what most of us think of as a spacewalk what an EVA or a spacewalk is is when the crew climbs into a space suit leaves the safety of the space station and into the vacuum of space to do work or to install enhancements for the space station for the space station spacewalks have been a critical element of first getting the space station built today some of the things that we do with spacewalks for the station are both to grow its capability for example we have experiments on the outside that do get updated from time to time and then additionally like you have to do at your home will do maintenance where certain components wear out and the crew will go out and replace them usually for every minute that the crew is outside working will probably spend 10 times that practicing on the ground ensuring that the crew when they get the instructions and the team on the ground is working through the EVA with them that they are as efficient as possible typically we'll spend several months before actually executing

52:25a spacewalk developing procedures and practicing inside the neutral buoyancy laboratory which is a very large very deep swimming pool and when you're in a space suit inside the neutral buoyancy laboratory there's a way that you can actually put weights in a certain method on the suit so that you will float either up nor down or sideways as you sit inside of the water just like in space additionally we have a full-size mock-up of the space station and they're able to develop techniques to do tasks on the spacewalk. On EVA day when it's time to go outside the crew will get into their suits they will activate them and then they'll do what's called a pre-breathe where they purge the nitrogen from their blood because the suit operates at a lower pressure crew members have to go through a specific protocol in order that they don't get what is known with divers as the

53:25transitioning from the preparation side is when the crew actually egresses the airlock. The mission control personnel that support them discuss both what is happening right now in the spacewalk as well as looking ahead so that we're ready for potentially changing what the crew is doing or if they're actually moving faster than we expected. Some EVAs will place one of the crew members on the robotic arm with the robotic arm we can take large components or the astronaut themselves in what essentially is maneuver like a very large crane on earth take a component and translate it in minutes to where they need to be to get to work. The robotic arm is a critical element but also a lot of fun for the astronauts when they get to go for a ride. Spacewalks and the team that supports and develops them as well as the astronauts to do the spacewalks help keep the space station healthy

54:25and have for many decades. Looking forward the skills that the team is learning doing spacewalks on the space station are informing our development of new suits new techniques and new tools that can be used in future projects as humanity expands out into the solar system including the moon and other planets. And welcome back to Mission Control Houston at the Johnson Space Center we are here in the hub of human spaceflight for NASA. The team of flight controllers currently on console recently pulled go for launch which means the International Space Station is ready for crew 13 to lift off and begin their journey to the orbiting lab. The team here in Mission Control is currently being led by flight director Garrett Haunt. Are you interested in being a flight director yourself? NASA will soon open applications for the next class of flight directors tomorrow. Selected flight directors will lead human spaceflight missions to the International Space Station,

55:27Artemis missions to the moon and eventually the first human missions to Mars. Flight directors are responsible for guiding teams of flight controllers, astronauts, research and engineering experts and commercial and international partners worldwide. If it sounds like a job for you we sure hope you will apply. But for now back to today's launch and docking. Docking is targeted for this evening and approximately six p.m. Central seven p.m. Eastern in the home stretch of the rendezvous tonight NASA and SpaceX flight controllers will enter into integrated operations. During integrated operations both flight control teams will conduct a series of go-no-go poles for a dragon grace as it closes into dock with the forward or earth-facing port of the space station's harmony module. Rotational missions like this help NASA continue to maximize space station and foster a low-earth orbit economy for future destinations in low-earth orbit. Everything continuing to look good here from the space station flight control side so sending it back over to KSC.

56:27Team minus 54 minutes and counting until lift off hopefully again whether a watch item right now Zeno we are at 60% go we're going to take this right down to the wire it sounds like. Absolutely we'll keep trying. Alright crew 13 will spend about six months on the International Space Station conducting science and technology demonstrations that can improve our lives on earth and in space. To me the International Space Station is really a collaboration it's a collaborative effort for all the humans that are up there exploring human science exploring all the aspects of exploration that we need to improve upon. It's a floating laboratory where we can do complex science for the good of humankind that we cannot do anywhere else but more maybe philosophically it's a marvel of what we can do it's sort of like this beacon in the sky that for this generation and all the ones that will follow speaks to that question of hey this is what we can do when we work together.

57:30But the main work and goal is to conduct experiments through various directions that can help people in medicine or in recognition of something new. These missions to the International Space Station are significant for everyone back here on earth for two reasons one is more on the technical side and the advancements that we're able to make on board the station the scientific research that we're able to do but the other aspect equally as important is the human aspect of what we're doing on the ISS the ability to come together towards a single goal because each of us has its own possibilities and its development and it's good that now this cooperation presents because everything is better from all sides we are not in space. It's an opportunity to solve like our biggest problems that we have on earth this opportunity for collaboration so to me space is an opportunity for a better future being able to explore out into the universe is something that

58:34makes us uniquely human. It's a place to talk about the place that he was born to be. Accordingly, when a person grows up, those who have not stopped this desire begins to spread their mind on various means one of the directions of space. It's the possibilities, it's the uncertainty, it's the discovery, that curiosity for I think pretty much everybody is there and it's natural for us to want to go understand even more beyond earth into the universe. Anything positive that humanity is accomplished at some level has come from this never-ending desire to explore. That's the only way that we go forward and get better. If you're just joining us welcome to live launch coverage of NASA and SpaceX's

59:40Crew 13 mission to the International Space Station we just saw that beautiful aerial view of the launch pad. I'm NASA's Megan Cruz and for the past hour I've been joined by NASA astronaut Zina Cardman Zina. Thank you so much again for all the insight that you're adding. You've been really helping to explain to us what's happening especially with the weather. Yeah thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here supporting my Crew 13 friends. We're really keeping an eye on the weather right now where 60% go. Hoping that the weather is going to clear up in the next half hour or so. And in just a moment we will take you live to Hawthorne, California. SpaceX is Jesse Anderson and NASA's Leah Cheshire will be guiding us through the countdown covering the critical milestones all the way to launch but first let's recap who's flying to space today. First up, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, commander of Crew 13. The Colorado native is a geologist who before becoming an astronaut worked at NASA's Ames Research Center and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At JPL she was part of the science team studying data from NASA's Curiosity Rover which has been

1:00:42exploring Mars since 2012. Then NASA selected Watkins as an astronaut candidate in 2017. She flew to space in 2022 as a mission specialist on Crew 4. SpaceX teams about to pull whether or not they will begin propellant loading into the Falcon 9. Now Jessica's flight on Crew 13 will make her the first NASA astronaut to fly on two SpaceX Dragon missions. Another fun fact about her, she is a former star rugby player. In college she helped her team win a national championship and she says the teamwork of rugby a lot like human spaceflight. That's exactly right. Human spaceflight is a huge team sport. It's greater than any human individual can do on our own. Jessica is sitting a third from the left and right next to her second from the left is your Crew 13 pilot, NASA astronaut Luke Delaney. He grew up in Florida and has spent his career flying. Delaney joined the Marine Corps and became a

1:01:43naval aviator flying combat missions in support of operation during freedom. He later became a test pilot and instructor evaluating new aircraft systems and training other pilots. He was also a research pilot at NASA's Langley Research Center flying research missions to study Earth's atmosphere and oceans. By the time NASA selected him as an astronaut in 2021, Delaney had logged more than 39 hundred hours in 48 different aircraft. This will be his first spaceflight. Yeah Luke brings so much great experience to the table. Great asset to have as pilot of our Dragon spacecraft. And then we have Canadian Space Agency astronaut Josh Kutrick, a mission specialist on Crew 13. Kutrick grew up on a cattle farm in Alberta and later became a fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force flying military missions around the world. He then became a test pilot evaluating a new aircraft and technologies for the Canadian military. Kutrick and Watkins, part of the same astronaut class, both graduating together in 2020. Kutrick is also a first-time flyer and his wife, expecting their third

1:02:49child while he'll be in space. That's such an exciting event for the family and we're also lucky to have these incredible support networks at home. And rounding out today's crew, Roscosmos Cosmonaut Sergei Tetriatnikov, mission specialist on Crew 13. This will be his first spaceflight as well. Tetriatnikov is an engineer who graduated from the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg in 2011, specializing in ship power plants operations. Before becoming a cosmonaut, he worked in naval engineering, including operations aboard undersea vessels and in specialized engine rooms. He was selected to join Roscosmos Cosmonaut Corps in 2021 and has been a test cosmonaut since 2023. He's a great engineer, great cosmonaut. I'm thrilled to be here watching his first spaceflight today. Again, beautiful imagery from the air, us orbiting the pad, space launch complex 40, with Crew 13 inside their Dragon Grace spacecraft. Now, SpaceX again has to pull its team to see if

1:03:52they are ready to start loading propellant into the rocket. For more on that, let's bring in Jesse and Leah, joining us live from SpaceX's mission control in Hawthorne. Thank you, Megan. I'm Jesse Anderson, a senior production manager here at SpaceX, where we are counting down to the launch of Crew 13. And with me for the duration of today's flight, is Leah Cheshire with NASA Communications. Thank you, Jesse. I'm so excited to be joining you once again from Hawthorne. This will be Dragon's 53rd visit to the International Station, both cargo and crew missions and SpaceX's 21st human spaceflight mission overall. And as you might have guessed, Crew 13 is the 13th rotational mission with SpaceX, flying astronauts for long duration missions to the International Space Station. Of course, NASA and SpaceX have also flown other missions, like the Demo2 test flight and private astronaut missions to the space station, but today, we're getting ready for Crew 13's launch with SpaceX as part of NASA's low-earth orbit program.

1:04:53SpaceX currently has five Dragon spacecraft supporting crew missions, and the one on deck for Crew 13 is named Grace. This dragon has flown just one other time for Axiom Mission 4, and also to the International Space Station. And now you're looking at the crew seated in Dragon. NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA or Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutrick, and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Sergei Teteriotnikov. Three of these are first-time flyers, along with a commander who is becoming the first NASA astronaut. It is LD on countdown 1. To fly, Dragon, Flight. To fly. To fly, Dragon, Flight. The team is ready for crew access, not retract, propellant load, and launch. Briefing the control room protocols. Both control rooms will go into lockdown at T-minus 45 minutes, or remain in that state until LES is disarmed. All operators are to remain at the COC console and maintain a sterococput until MD confirms successful disarming of the launch escape system, following orbit insertion, or propellant offload in the event of a scrub.

1:05:55For non-urgent NOGO conditions, brief CE or LD and they will approve a boarding account. For urgent issues affecting the safety of the operation, operators shall call hold hold hold on the countdown net. Launch control will board the launch out of sequence immediately and proceed into launch abort. At T-minus 10 seconds, launch control will be hands off and relying on automated abort criteria for their main duty account. Operators are to advise launch director whether structural breakup or fire is imminent occurring per Dragon manual flight escape rules. Launch control, you may proceed with arming the crew arm for movement. Launch control copies proceeding to arm the crew arm for movement. All right, just now under 45 minutes from lift off hearing those communications with the space act. The next major milestone is for the crew access arm to retract. Again, you just heard the

1:06:59start of that. This is what the crew walked through to get to the Dragon spacecraft. So retracting or bringing it back and a great live view on your screen. Pulling this away, it's a very visible milestone that we are still on the path to launch. So if the launch was scrubbed after this point, the access arm could be moved back into place to allow the crew to exit this spacecraft and fly again another day. And you can see that access arm moving there on your screen. This is just about a minute long of a process. And this is pad 40 where we have this crew access arm. We originally were launching crew off of pad 39A and recently in 2023 installed this crew arm on this launch tower so that we could have support for crew on this launch pad. I expect this crew access arm. LD launch control crew arm retract is complete. I was going to say we expected to wrap up shortly and very shortly indeed. So

1:08:03another milestone behind us. The crew access arm being stowed away. A very visual signal that we are still moving toward launch. So with that complete, we're getting closer to lift off. And the meantime, let's head back to Megan at KSC to take us through the next step. Yeah, back here at Kennedy. Kind of walk us through now, Zena. What is happening next? Yeah, our next big stage is going to be arming the launch escape system. And we just heard from the crew that they are ready for that step. That means that their restraints are tightened, their boots are connected to their footrests. And they'll have their visors down ready to go. And this is actually one of the commands that the crew sends themselves on launch day. So getting ready for that, we want to have that launch escape system arm before we start fueling the rocket. Since this is such a critical milestone, kind of walk me through maybe what you were thinking when you were in drag and at this moment, so close to launch. It's really pure focus right now. The team has trained for this over and over again. Everything feels very familiar. But what I

1:09:07remember so distinctly from my first launch attempt was that feeling of the rocket really coming alive as it begins fueling. You hear the valves moving. You can feel them moving. And the rocket really kind of begins to move and breathe. And it feels very different than training. Yeah, how does training feel? Do you hear any of those feel any of those sensations? Or really, it's like your first attempt at launch. This is when you're experiencing it. Yeah, during training, we actually play recordings of some of the sounds that you can expect to hear on launch day so that those are familiar. But there is really nothing quite like sitting at top a live fuel rocket ready to go. As we said, you know, same astronaut class as Josh and Jessica, I know that you also know the other two crew members as well, you know, knowing them. What do you think is going through their mind? Go for section six, close visors and arm launch escape system. Driving copies go for section six, arm and call out there confirming that they are ready. They're

1:10:13going to put down their visors. The launch escape system has been armed. Yeah. So again, knowing these folks at this moment, what do you think they're thinking feeling? This is seven visors close on the launch escape system. And they're sending that command right now. Crews very focused getting ready for the final 40 minutes of this countdown. Again, if you're looking at your screen, we have Sergei far left next to him, Luke, and then you have Jessica and Josh visors down ready for anything. Again, now that the launch escape system is armed, that means if there were an emergency, it would trigger automatically from now until whenever it's needed. That's right. Yeah. It's a very smart rocket that could trigger this launch escape automatically. If needed, the crew also has the ability to pull that handle themselves manually. This is a big milestone before we start like. The system is very fight armed.

1:11:19Want to keep talking about whether again here, as they are continuing to fuel propellant into the rocket, we know that they are still doing this despite the fact that whether not looking great, but we're really hoping that things clear up in time for launch at 11.10 a.m. Yeah, I'd say whether's looking medium and I'm a attorney of this. Four to four, four to one hundred. As you heard, Sina is a glass half full. Cut down. That's right. So, my, so let's do it. Just under five minutes from now, I think we'll start propellant loading. Got a couple of milestones to go before we're ready for launch today. Now for nearly three decades, the International Space Station has been a home as well as a laboratory and really a symbol of what countries can accomplish together. Assembly began in 1998 and the first crew arrived two years later, beginning more than 25 years of continuous human presence in orbit. Since then, two hundred and ninety five individuals from 26 countries have visited the International Space Station, conducting thousands of experiments

1:12:22in the unique environments of microgravity. It's an absolutely incredible orbiting laboratory. This includes advanced medicine, technology. It's really helping us understand life and space, but also focused on understanding our own human bodies here on Earth. So much of what we experience as astronauts is very much like aging populations, immunocompromised populations on Earth experience. And so this is really helping NASA prepare for the next giant leaps to the moon and Mars. Yeah, I love remembering that there's so many applications here on Earth that can improve our lives here on Earth. You've always mentioned kind of that interest in especially that human research. Absolutely. Yes. I think everything that we do on the International Space Station is for the benefit of people on Earth. Now SpaceX is now about to start loading propellant into the Falcon 9 rocket. So let's send it back out to our team at Hawthorne to monitor this important milestone. Thank you, Megan and Zina. Super great to see you guys out there today. We are

1:13:24at T minus 38 minutes and counting until lift off of crew 13. This is a live look of the Dragon spacecraft mounted atop the Falcon 9 rocket. As you can see that crew access arm is retracted no longer attached to the Dragon spacecraft. That's what the crew used to walk into the spacecraft earlier today. They've been seated in there for a few hours now. They are in their suits. Those visors are down. They have done some com checks. We've heard discussions with the SpaceX team members getting ready for a prop load here coming up at approximately 35 minutes before launch. Yeah, I think we are also glass half full. The weather has some clouds. You can see they're on your screen, but I was seeing some blue clouds there, Leah. Just hoping for that T zero clear weather today for an instantaneous lift off for the crew today. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great reminder. It is an instantaneous. All nine things are venting for the start of propel and load.

1:14:27All right, good news. Falcon 9 being primed for propel and loading. Again, we expect that to start at about T minus 35 minutes, but yes, an instantaneous lift off today. We will be perfectly aligned with the International Space Station and their rendezvous and docking process should only take about eight hours. So if we lift off on time today, that will be the fastest launch to docking of an American spacecraft to the International Space Station. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we see this crew not only leave Earth today, but also arrive at their destination, the International Space Station. I also believe Jessica Watkins was on crew four, which had the fastest dragon docking to the Space Station. So she might be the lucky charm for this. Yeah, absolutely. I've had a I've had domestic or international flights last longer. So this is a live look inside the dragon spacecraft. From left to right, you see Roscosmos Cosmonaut, Sergei Tedriotnikov, beside him, NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, who is the pilot, then NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, our commander,

1:15:31and finally Canadian Space Agency astronaut Josh Kutrick. And the SpaceX launch team is now completing finer preparations for propellant load as we've been hearing those callouts. The vehicles are venting in preparation for that prep load. Again, once prep load begins, we are locked into our target for T-0 for launch today. Again, it's an instantaneous launch. If we are unable to lift off at that T-0 today, we do have a backup opportunity for lift off tomorrow at the same time. And we have a propellant loading that will last us pretty far down into the count. Again, expecting that to start at about the 35-minute mark, we've heard some calls a little bit early today, even. Things are moving really smoothly for the spacecraft and the rocket side and for the crew. It's really just the weather that we're keeping our fingers crossed for what we've done it before. Let's see if we can do it again. And again, we are just watching for cumulus clouds, some thick clouds. It's good callout. Frop load has begun on Falcon 9. With

1:16:34propellant load now underway, we're getting close to launch of crew 13. So let's go back to KSC and Megan for a recap on how this crew started the day. Yeah, let's get you caught up on what's happened so far this morning as the crew prepared for launch. And of course, started inside astronaut crew quarters here at Kennedy. This is specifically the pseudo-broom. Actually, the same room where NASA astronauts have suited up for crewed launches from Kennedy since Apollo 7 in 1968. SpaceX technicians, they helped each crew member into their custom pressure suits. And I swayed there designed to protect them if dragon lost pressure during launchery entry. After everyone was dressed, the crew took part in a pre-launched tradition. They also got to speak with NASA's administrator Jared Isaacman. This card game, this is something that the commander has to lose before they can leave to the pad. The idea being to leave the bad luck behind. So only good luck follows the crew. It's always so funny to see them high five and it's like she lost.

1:17:37When that's over, they headed downstairs and out of crew quarters. They greeted family friends, supporters, one final time before their flight. Then the crew got into their Tesla's. Check out these license plates, Lucky 13. And off they went, I know, off they went to launch complex 40. The trip through Kennedy and onto Cape Canaveral Space Force Station took about 20 minutes. And then once at the pad, the crew looked up at the ride to space. This is a really fun moment, Zena. That's right. Oh my gosh, what an incredible moment looking up at your rocket for the first time. And for Jessica Watkins, this is her second dragon launch, but her first time launching from Launchpad 40. So they then took the elevator up the launch tower to walk across the crew access arm here. We watched as they ingressed into dragon, got into their seats. The pad team, making sure they were buckled in, connected to dragon's life support and communication systems. Their seats then rotated into their position for launch and their suits were checked for any leaks.

1:18:39And now we're watching the rest live crew 13, about 32 minutes from launch here at Kennedy Space Center. Exciting times again, hopefully weather cooperates. Fingers crossed, this is an exciting time. This is really when the rocket starts to feel like it's coming alive as they begin to fuel Falcon 9. Zena, let's hear more from our viewers. We ask them to send some questions for you. So let's see some of those now. The weather forecast hits differently when you're right to work. Yes, that's true. It's a rocket. Wishing crew 13 a safe trip. What's the biggest weather hurdle for today's launch? Well, the weather is twofold. First you need weather that's good right at the launch pad. You also need weather that's good all the way up the Atlantic coast as the rocket will fly all the way up before getting to orbit. And so we have good weather up the coast of the Atlantic, but the weather here at Florida is really the biggest hurdle. So we're hoping it'll clear up in the next 30 minutes. You just need one little window. Come on clouds. Let's take another question now.

1:19:46What is the crew's favorite food? Oh gosh, that's hard. Different for everybody. Yeah, we're really lucky that the food on board this base station is actually quite good. A lot of it is similar to MRE's the military eat, but we have a lot of different options. I personally really liked the lasagna. I know the different crew that have a lot of different favorites. And so sometimes you trade with each other to get the good stuff. Yeah, people always talk about how what they really love to do in their free time is just to have a meal with their teammates. Absolutely. Yeah, that shared community and you get really creative too with the food making space sushi with some preserved shrimp and some crab shrimp. What was your favorite food that you had while you were there? Oh man, one of my favorites was just making cake or what we call cake. It's a little space cake. Yeah, it's creative made with a lot of putting cinnamon rolls, something that you share together for fun milestones, whether that's a birthday or someone's 100th day in space.

1:20:51Great way to celebrate. So I'm assuming space cakes for when the stadium pro helium pool. Again, a milestone there as we continue propellant loading. I'm expecting a space cake for when Josh has his third child. Oh no doubt no doubt. All right, let's take another question now. Why do they have to board the dragon so long before launch? Well, there are a lot of different steps that have to happen before we're ready for launch and so this includes time for the crew to get all strapped in making sure that there are umbilicals that give air to the suits and also communications and telemetry data are connected well. They also want to make sure that they have good comms with the ground teams and remote teams who are supporting the launch and then you do a leak check of the suits. Then you close the hatch, you do a leak check of the hatch. There's all of these little steps and so some of these are things that the crew have to do themselves and have to do inside the spacecraft and some of these

1:21:56are things that the ground teams are doing to make sure that the rocket itself is ready. So it takes a long time and I assure you it takes a lot of focus to stay patient but there's lots to do on the way to launch. Yeah, a very choreographed rundown timeline of things just to make sure you don't forget anything. Absolutely. Yes, the teams are very diligently going through a lot of procedures and checklists making sure we don't miss anything at all. Next question please. Zina, what was your favorite part about Crew Dragon? Oh my gosh, there's so many things to choose from. One of my favorite things was the windows and the vantage point of seeing Earth through those windows. That was my first view of Earth from orbit but really my favorite thing about the spacecraft dragon was the people on board and the people supporting us back home. They really feel like family by the time you're ready for launch day. That's a great answer. Thank you so much Zina. And again, thank you for your questions. Those were really great. Love the range. So really keep them coming. Just hit us up on YouTube and X with At NASA and we'll get to your

1:22:57questions live. NASA's Tony Hatomio recently had a chance to chat with NASA's Associate Administrator Few Human Space Flight. That's Dr. Laurie Glays about Crew 13 and preparing for future destinations. Hi, I'm joined by Dr. Laurie Glays, the Associate Administrator for NASA's Human Space Flight Mission Directorate. Laurie, thank you so much for joining us today. Can you tell us what will Crew 13 be doing aboard their time on the International Space Station? They have a ton of really exciting research that they're going to be involved in while they're on station. One of the coolest things they're going to be using stem cell derived tissues to do some research and advance some of our understanding of diseases like heart disease and Parkinson's. I think that's really cool. They're also going to be doing things like growing plants. They'll be studying the blood flow in microgravity, which is a really important area that we're really interested in. And then of course lastly, we think that this crew is going to get the opportunity to do some

1:23:57spacewalks. So that'll be awesome. Why is it important that we maintain this kind of presence in low earth orbit? How does that help us for our missions to the moon or onward to Mars? We get so much great information from our crew that serve time on the space station that help us better understand how our human astronauts are going to live and work long term in these really unusual environments. For example, on the surface of the moon, where they're in a reduced gravity but still have to operate in suits, we get a lot of information from station there. And then when we want to send astronauts to Mars, they're going to have to be in that weightless environment for a very long time. That could be a mission that's over a year long. And many months in space and then they have to land and do work on the surface in one third gravity. And then that long trip back home. So we get so much great information that we can use feeding forward. All stepping stones indeed. Finally, let's take it back to crew 13. Laurie, do you have any

1:25:01special words or any message you'd like to say to the crew? I do. In fact, our teams have all worked so incredibly hard to get to this point. To our astronaut crew, to Jessica, to Luke, Josh, and Sergei. Godspeed, you guys are going to have an amazing mission. We're all pulling for you. And then of course to our ground teams and all of our teams that help support and get us to this point, thank you so much for everything that you do that helps us make a mission like this possible. Laurie, thank you so much for joining us. We'll send it back to you. Great words from Laurie there. And as we look at our clock, T minus 25 minutes and counting, as we prepare to launch this crew, NASA also has its eyes set on the moon. Earlier this year, Artemis II successfully flew around the moon and next year four astronauts will launch on Artemis III, staying near Earth to test critical systems before landing astronauts on the lunar surface with Artemis IV. Our Artemis crews, they launch on NASA's space launch system or SLS

1:26:02rocket. And as we speak, that rocket is being assembled just inside that building, Kennedy's vehicle assembly building. The rocket has two side boosters, teams completed stacking both those boosters just yesterday. Those will flank this core stage that will be integrated soon. All four of its RS-25 engines are already attached. This rocket will propel the crew and their Orion spacecraft there into low Earth orbit before they will practice docking with two commercially developed test landers. The two companies developing the landers are SpaceX and Blue Origin. During Blue Origin's docking demonstration, two Artemis astronauts may enter Blue's lander to experience the crew cabin and its environment. For more on SpaceX's preparations for Artemis III, let's send it back to Jesse and Leah and Hawthorne, California. Thanks, Megan. For Artemis III, we're going to fly a test version of the vehicle that will be used

1:27:03for future moon landings. The lander test article will launch on Starship while the Artemis III crew will launch to low Earth orbit in Orion on top of NASA's space launch system rocket. We'll be flying a modified Starship version 3 vehicle with an added docking system installed on the nose of the ship. This will enable NASA and SpaceX to evaluate how the entire integrated stack of Orion and the Starship test lander interact. We plan to launch Starship to rendezvous with Orion and its crew for its phase on on orbit testing. During docking and undocking operations Orion and the Artemis III crew will use Starship as a target while Orion will operate as the chaser spacecraft. It won't have a cabin inside, so astronauts will not enter Starship during Artemis III. With the success of Starship's first orbital mission during flight 14 just a couple of days ago, the Starship program is making incredible progress towards a future in orbit, ship to ship to ship propellant transfer. Prop transfer is one of the final milestones we have remaining before getting ready to send Starships to the moon. The whole company is honored to be a

1:28:08part of NASA's goal to send astronauts to explore the moon and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars. And the Artemis III crew was announced in June this year, which includes NASA astronauts Randy Bresnick, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas as well as ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. Because we're targeting launch for 2027, the update of training started right away, quite literally the morning after the announcement. The crew's training is organized around major phases of the mission, including acid, orbit and rendezvous operations, entry and both pre and post landing readiness. They completed water survival training, food tasting in our food lab, they've been brushing up on their photography skills to make sure they are sending the best images back to us of our home planet. The Artemis III crew has also begun integrated simulations with the flight control team, during which the astronauts and flight controllers rehearse mission timelines and adapt to situations they could face during the mission. Artemis III will be one of the most complex and ambitious missions NASA and our partners have ever undertaken. You can follow

1:29:09the latest on Artemis III and future Artemis mission progress at NASA.gov slash Artemis and on our social media channels. So clearly, there's a lot happening, a lot of action at NASA and we've got some of it unfolding today. So let's get back to crew 13. Today's launch is powered by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket used for cargo and crew missions alike. Let's dive into the dragon spacecraft perched atop the Falcon 9 rocket, which is where crew 13 is now. The Falcon 9 rocket supporting today's crew 13 launch is a two-stage rocket designed for the reliable and safe transport of satellites, cargo and people, which is the goal of NASA's low-earth orbit program. At the top of Falcon 9 today, the crew is sitting inside of this dragon spacecraft on your screen. There are currently five SpaceX Dragon spacecraft supporting human spaceflight mission. That's Endeavor, resilience, endurance, freedom and our dragon today named Grace. Designed with safety as the highest priority, dragon is capable of carrying up to seven passengers to and from Earth orbit.

1:30:13The spacecraft has 16 Draco thrusters that can be used in space to help navigate to its destination, each providing 90 pounds of thrust. Now that doesn't include the eight super Draco thrusters used for an abort, but those are no longer active once the crew is in orbit. A two-date dragon has been to orbit 56 times, including 53 trips to the International Space Station, both cargo and crew missions, and has completed 21 human spaceflight missions overall. Dragon is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the orbiting lab, having flown 300,000 pounds of cargo, and more than a thousand experiments to space, as well as 78 crew members representing 20 countries. The Dragon Space Craf can autonomously dock with the International Space Station when outfitted with a docking adapter, and that is one of three of dragon configurations, and of course that's currently how it's configured for today's Flight 4 crew 13. So right below Dragon is Falcon 9's second stage, which features a single Merlin vacuum or M vacuum tube. Our P1 load is complete. Hey, good news there. We've got

1:31:17Rp1 load complete on stage two. That is the rocket repellent, a densified caracene that we will need to combine with the liquid oxygen, still loading to get us to space. So back to the spacecraft and the rocket itself. Once you hear me go today, our main engine cut off, the second stage will ignite and continue carrying the crew to orbit. Below the second stage is the black carbon fiber interstage, and inside of that is where the MVAC engine is located. The interstage connects the first and second stages, and houses the center pusher that allows those stages to separate during the flight. And below that interstage is the first stage or booster, which will be fully loaded with about 1 million pounds of liquid oxygen, Rp1 rocket grade caracene. The first stage makes up the bottom two-thirds of the rocket and has 9 Merlin 1D engines, which will generate more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust. The booster supporting today's mission will be making its third flight. It previously launched NASA's crew 12 mission earlier this year, and one star-linked mission. About 2.5 minutes into flight, the first stage will separate and make its way back to Earth,

1:32:21and today's booster is headed back to landing zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As the first stage returns to Earth, Dragon continues its flight on the second stage before Seaco, or second stage engine cut off, then separates from Dragon, which continues its roughly 8-hour journey to the Space Station. So the countdown continues. I know our hot topic for today is the weather, Jesse, and so you're seeing. So far POV is 40 percent, and we did hear that it was not- Dragon in Space X for status update, report 1 ready to copy. Okay, Dragon, we are tracking no issues on the Dragon or Falcon vehicles, proceeding with the countdown. Weather is currently go, but the situation is dynamic, and we will be continuing to monitor throughout the remainder of the count. How copy?

1:33:24All right, Dragon, copies, and no issues, proceeding with launch, and currently go for weather. All good news. Good feedback. And there, we just got the weather update from the core. Sounds like it's go for launch at T-0 today. We have- it's been, you know, a little bit back and forth on being go and no go, but it sounds like it's going to clear up for that T-0 for us today. Very exciting. So let's check back in with Mission Control Houston, where NASA's Sandra Jones is keeping an eye on the space station side of the operations. Sandra. Thanks, Jesse, and Leah, and back here in the International Space Station Flight Control Room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Teams are continuing to work around the clock to monitor activities aboard the orbital outpost. Leading the team inside the room today is NASA Flight Director Garrett Hahn. The NASA team here in Mission Control Houston, the SpaceX team in Hawthorne, California, and the astronauts aboard space station,

1:34:27will track the autonomous docking of Dragon Grace when they enter joint operations. This will happen when the spacecraft enters what we know as the approach ellipsoid. The approach ellipsoid is an invisible boundary stretching four by two by two kilometers around the space station that helps us monitor all arriving and departing spacecraft. It is essentially the neighborhood of the International Space Station. Once docked crew members in both Dragon and aboard the space station will pressurize the area between the Dragon Hatch and Space Station- Oh, what has started. And Space Station Hatch known as the Vesibule. They will then perform a series of leak checks and then work to open the hatches on both the space station and Dragon. And after the hatches are opened, crew 13 will float into their station to begin their long durations day. Following today's launch, we are tracking a targeted docking this evening at approximately 6 p.m. About an hour and a half later, after docking, we anticipate those hatches will be opened

1:35:27and they'll be greeted by the rest of the Expedition 75 crew. Then once settled into their Mission Crew 13, we'll continue the groundbreaking science happening every single day aboard the space station. During their mission, they will leverage microgravity for the production of human stem cell derived tissues which could help in the treatment of conditions like heart disease and Parkinson's, which affect millions on Earth. Crew 13 will also explore crop production for future long duration missions by installing a new mostly autonomous plant growth facility and growing crops in plant pillows at a location of their choice throughout the space station. They'll also be continuing human research by studying factors that could be related to blood flow abnormalities in space and testing a new diagnostic device to monitor astronaut health. You can stay up to date with the daily research on space station through our space station blog and our social media accounts, but for now I'll toss it back to Megan for a last check in with our Florida team before liftoff.

1:36:28I like the positivity yes before liftoff. We heard a briefing to the crew that weather right now is go, but they are admitting it is dynamic. We're really going to have to be watching those conditions right up until launch. Oh definitely yes weather here is always dynamic, but we are going to keep counting down as long as weather is go and the crew are doing great inside the spacecraft. We've heard no issues on dragon or falcon 9 today, so everything is looking really good. I know the crew are feeling very excited but also very focused very ready for this launch. Yeah we heard Jessica read back what they said during the briefing. I don't know it sounded like she was a little excited trying to hold back the excitement that's right about the possibility of going. Yes you can hear it in her voice and I know all of the crew are feeling the same. They're absolutely excited but also focused on the mission ahead. There's a lot ahead of them before they get to the International Space Station, but I can't imagine any crew that's more ready. Again this is the 13th operational rotation to the International Space Station,

1:37:33NASA and SpaceX as part of our low earth orbit program. Zina what do you wish people understand? What do you want them to know about our continued investment in low earth orbit? Oh my gosh there's something new that we learn with every single one of these missions and I think again and again we're reminded that there's absolutely nothing commonplace about this. It takes an incredible team effort to get a mission like this ready. You can see so many people today on launch day who are involved in this mission but then even after they get to the space station it takes an incredible team and every day they will be doing research that benefits people here on earth but just the act of living in space is incredibly complex. We learn something new every time. Yeah it's really important I feel like always hammering that home right there are two fold benefits to continuing to live and work on the International Space Station that's of course to advance

1:38:34our knowledge about how humans can live and work in space as we go farther we have our eyes set on the moon and Mars but also again bringing a lot of that research back down to earth can you talk a little bit more about both? Yes so much of what we experience as astronauts onboard the space station are really accelerated effects that people here on earth experience whether that's aging populations or immunocompromised populations the human body's response to stress is something that we experience on very short time scales when we are weightless in orbit but then we also get to come home and recover from those impacts and so studying the ways that we see onset but then also recovery is really beneficial to people here at home. So speaking of again all those benefits that are on the International Space Station hopefully our destination for today again we are about 12 minutes to launch so let's send it back over to Hawthorne for the final step hopefully of today's countdown to launch.

1:39:35Thanks Megan and Zina and yes we are excited for weather to be go for T0 today still watching as it is dynamic and I do have a correction the fastest docking from launch to the International Space Station on Dragon was actually crew 11 so I apologize Zina thank you for correcting me. She's very kind I'm sure she'll forgive us so yes we are now coming up on the 11 minute mark before lift off today and you can see the crew on the left side of your screen in Dragon they are suited seated visors down completely ready for launch they've completed communications checks they are able to monitor those screens that are in front of the pilot and commander that is Luke Delaney there you can you can see him fully on your screen and then right next to him is Jessica Watkins the commander of both NASA astronauts they'll be monitoring throughout the rest of the countdown as well as through the flight they have the ability to take over control of the Dragon spacecraft if they need to but ideally this is an autonomous process where

1:40:38the spacecraft will manual or will fly itself all the way to the International Space Station and again if we launch today we are looking at approximately eight hours from launch to docking so extremely fast yeah and as you mentioned Leah both vehicles are autonomous we are coming up on the terminal count at T-minus 10 minutes at T-minus 5 minutes Dragon will take over its flight computer and will be autonomous from there on out and then Falcon will take over its flight computer at the T-minus 1 minute mark so fully autonomous the crew really doesn't have to do anything they do have the ability to override and take over manually if if needed at any point but essentially they should be able to sit back relax and enjoy the flight please confirm displays are configured for launch this extra thing to say is a continuous launch Josh Wadi Luke Sergei thank you for your commitment to human space flight

1:41:42Godspeed crew 13 thank you Nick on behalf of Luke Josh Sergei and myself thank you to the dedicated team at NASA SpaceX CSA and Ross Crockner who come together every day to make the impossible with the extraordinary routine and the future of exploration looks bright to our families and friends we wouldn't be here today without your love support and sacrifice human space flight is truly a team sport and there is an honor and a privilege to represent all of you who have contributed to the success of this mission with gratitude and grace two k-two and as ready to fly those words they are coming from NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins of this bump's happening inside the cabin this crew is ready to launch again we continue watching the

1:42:42weather we are go right now but you can see some of those clouds on the screen we we obviously like are continuing to watch those as we mentioned we do have an instantaneous launch window meaning that we have to launch at the very second that we are scheduled to today in order to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station this evening so if at any time during the countdown here hold hold hold that means that we are not launching today so again if you're just tuning in the last voice you heard was NASA astronaut commander of dragon Jessica Watkins leading crew 13 further into the countdown as we get closer by the second to lift off so in this final 10 minutes things start happening rapidly we're still loading fuel on the rocket we still need to hear that the engine shell has started on the first stage and we'll see the strong back retracts and more this might be in NASA and space axis 13th operational space flight but everything in these final moments still has to go perfectly for us to see lift off today exactly and coming up at t-minus seven minutes we will hear the call out for engine shell starting up on Falcon 9's first stage at this point both

1:43:47stages will be nearly full fully loaded with about a million pounds of care of propellant and that includes rp1 a highly refined caracene and liquid oxygen chilled to over 300 degrees below zero propellant is loading intentional propellant loading is intentional until the last couple minutes of the countdown colder propellants are denser and the denser propellants mean we can load more into the tanks and increase the vehicle performance and before any of that propellant starts flowing the plumbing and engines are chilled down and that prevents thermal shock and boil off when the ultra cold liquid starts moving stage one engine shell there's that call out for engine shell beginning yeah right on time so now we're standing by for the confirmation that rp1 loading is complete on Falcon 9 this is the highly refined caracene that serves as the rocket's propellant hence the name rp and the number one denoting that this is used on Falcon 9's first stage the crew inside dragon is pretty much hands off right now they do have the ability to monitor the spacecraft

1:44:50through their displays but at this time they're letting the teams continue to work the process as they are experiencing their last few minutes of gravity this year we're accepting that stage one fuel propellant loading completion to be called out at about six minutes rp1 load is complete and a little bit early even so confirmation that rp1 loading is complete on the rocket we are still loading liquid oxygen on both stages that liquid oxygen or locks will be combined with the rocket propellant the refined caracene that we just finished loading so at the time I lift off that will create the high thrust combustion we're looking for from the engines next up is the transition to terminal count at five minutes and dragon being on internal power terminal count is the final automated countdown sequence internal power means dragon will not be using power from the ground anymore and will instead be relying on its own onboard batteries to power the spacecraft once dragon is on orbit it'll use the solar cells that are wrapped around its trunk

1:45:50to recharge the batteries as needed expecting that call for terminal count around five minutes prior to lift off again weather has been our watch item but still looking good so far for T-0 we do see some blue clouds in the background there just need a couple minutes at T-04 and lift off Falcon 9 thanks are pressing for a strong back retract dragon is in configure for terminal count right on time dragon is now on its own batteries for power and the spacecraft continuing countdown as we prepare for strong back retract and that is the next milestone coming up the transfer director the t-e will begin to retract away from Falcon 9 and you'll see this process has begun when the clamp arms located near the top of the second stage

1:46:55which you can see there on your screen back retract has started there's that call up that it's beginning it's just below dragon there on your screen those clamp arms will begin to open once they're fully open then the strong back can begin to retract away from the vehicle and once those clamp arms are open the rocket is fully free at the top this allows the t-e to begin to move away from the vehicle and there you can see those clamp arms moving there the t-e provides fuel power telemetry and command connections between ground systems and the vehicle and the t-e rolls Falcon 9 out to the pad and raises it vertical and it stays connected all the way through the final seconds just before lift off those clamp arms are now fully open we should start to see this strong back retract here and it's very slow and slight but it's beginning to move now again it's going to move a few degrees away in the next 30 seconds or so and then at lift off it'll

1:47:58fully recline away from the vehicle to allow more space for it to lift off and it's a little hard to see there but it looks like the strong back is pretty close to being reclined there we're now standing by for the call that stage one locks load is complete right on time stage one liquid oxygen loading complete that's what the rocket uses as an oxidizer to combine with the refined carousine that we just finished loading a few minutes ago when those two are united is internal count and is on internal power confirmation for our internal power dragon using its own batteries so back to the liquid oxygen if we get the thrust we need to break away from the pull of earth gravity when we combine liquid oxygen and that densified carousine we can't go

1:49:00anywhere until we have both and that white vapor you see coming off of the rocket is totally normal like jesse mentioned earlier liquid oxygen is super cold obviously florida is not so those clouds are just condensed water vapor invented cold gas we're coming up on two minutes until lift off today another two minutes two minute mark that should complete liquid oxygen loading on stage two so we'll stand by for that call and stage two locks load is complete and falcon nine is fully loaded with one million pounds of propellant providing over 1.7 million pounds of thrust for the vehicle dragon is in auto idle all right the next major milestone coming up will be at team minus close outs expect loud venting team minus one minute and we did hear that call out that to expect it loud venting the team is

1:50:02informing the crew of all the noises and sounds that they will hear so they know they know what to expect and they know what's happening as they can't see outside of the vehicle again at team minus one minute the flight computers will take over the launch countdown for falcon nine which will hear that call out called falcon nine and start up falcon nine is in startup there's that call easing countdown last call is from the launch director for the final go for launch falcon nine is now for space x go for launch there's that call out both of them go for launch crew is ready to go let's listen into the final moments of the countdown and watch as falcon nine takes crew 13 out into space team minus 30 seconds

1:51:05team minus 15 seconds team minus 10 nine eight seven six five four three two one ignition and lift off go falcon go dragon and go crew 13 carried by dragon grace to the international space station all nine burlin engines on the first stage at maximum thrust of 1.7 million pounds we heard a good call the propulsion is nominal or as expected the spacecraft will also begin to pitch down range meaning it's turning slightly horizontally from what you saw it lift off to help build speed

1:52:06T plus 40 seconds T plus 40 seconds into crew 13's mission on four day one throttle down of dragon and falcon nine and we did hear that call out for stage one throttle down that is in preparation for max Q coming up here in a few seconds and there's that call out for max Q that's the largest structure load that the vehicle sees on a set and the crew and falcon nine have passed through it stage one throttle up after one Bravo back call be one Bravo that call coming from inside the spacecraft one Bravo meaning we are in the second and final aboard mode for the first stage but we are continuing to get good performance the crew is pulling over two Gs you can see in the bottom right of your screen and back chill is how we performed the engine show for the first stage before lift off very

1:53:08similar for the second stage and then we'll have meco or main engine cut off where the nine engines on the first stage will cut off ahead of the first and second stages separating from one another then that single merlin vacuum engine on the second stage will ignite and continue to carry crew 13 to orbit while the first stage begins its journey back to earth stage one throttle down the nine merlin 1d engines are beginning to throttle down and standing by for meco or main engine cut off and we will have a few events coming back to back as Liam mentioned meco stage separation the m back big starting up on the second stage as well as the boost backburn for the first stage making his way back to earth and main engine cut off stage separation copy two alpha and the ignition

1:54:10and obvious confirmation not only verbally but also visually that's the first stage back floating away from dragon that impact engine the second stage engine has ignited continuing to carry crew 13 toward the international space station those were some really cool views we actually saw the boost backburn start up on the first stage heading back down to earth and now you can see on your screen on the left hand side that is the first stage vehicle the grid fins should begin deploying here shortly and on your right hand screen is the impact engine on the second stage still carrying the crew 13 astronauts on board dragon first stage is heading back to landing zone 40 today now three minutes 30 seconds into the flight crew 13 traveling over 4000 miles per hour that's 6700 kilometers an hour they're on the right side of your screen that impact engine continuing to hold them and it looks like the boost backburn has concluded on the first stage and now you can see

1:55:16those grid fins and good call out for a nominal to pop it with nominal to birthday wow these views look incredible those grid fins now look like they are fully deployed on the first stage you can see those puffs of gas there that is just for attitude control of the vehicle meanwhile we have about four and a half minutes left a powered flight on the second stage now coming up on four minutes and 30 seconds into today's flight you're hearing some calls from inside the spacecraft that's NASA astronaut commander Jessica Watkins leading crew 13 aboard dragon grace we're continuing to get good calls for a nominal trajectory dragon is pointed in the right direction continuing its flight eventually accelerating to over 17,000 miles per hour and putting

1:56:17our crew in orbit nominal trajectory and stage one is making its way back to earth it's completed its boost backburn that was the first of three burns that it needs to land today the next milestone coming up will be the entry burn that's the second of three burns and it will ignite three of those nine marlin 1d engines to help slow the vehicle down as it enters back into the earth's atmosphere that's about less than a minute away from that entry burn beginning it's about a 12 second burn for this mission today and as a reminder will be touching down on landing zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force station now five minutes and 50 five zero seconds into today's flight

1:57:21continuing to get good trajectory calls from the core the crew operations resource dragon now traveling over 7,300 miles per hour six minutes into the flight pulling about 1.5 G so a little bit more than what you're used to experiencing on earth and that entry burn is coming up on the first stage watch your left hand screen for those engines to ignite there we have the first engine lit for the entry burn should have been all three engines igniting and now has been shut down now that was enough to help us make our way back into the earth's atmosphere as the vehicle is making his way down to earth the atmosphere actually scrubs about 70% of the velocity on Falcon 9

1:58:31as it's making its way back down there you can see the landing zone in the background we have the last burn coming up which is the landing burn which will last just about 15 seconds or so helped the vehicle touch down for landing what an excellent view there the landing burn as we got I think we also heard we can hear it wow that was awesome to hear and see Falcon 9 touchdown you're the crowd who's also very excited to watch that absolutely phenomenal to hear those sonic booms meanwhile the second stage this Merlin vacuum engine continuing to repel crew 13

1:59:32now over eight minutes into their flight they are experiencing about three G's traveling 13,300 miles per hour we expect this burn to end in just about 30 seconds that over completion of the second stage and we'll see second stage engine cut off we'll then have about a minute where they are still connected while we allow the rates to settle out before eventually dragon beginning to fly free on its own away from the second stage call out for Shannon referencing Shannon Ireland the final abort zone for stage two there we did dragon space x terminal orbital insertion launch escape system disarmed

2:00:37and seco second stage engine cutoff we heard good callouts following that second stage engine cutoff the crew is in their orbit as expected we're going to coast for a minute as I mentioned to allow these rates in the motion from the burn to settle out and there are small reaction thrusters on the upper part of the second stage that can be used to counteract any residual motion basically making sure that dragon is in a stable coast before it separates from Falcon just about a minute from now again we did hear they have been successfully inserted into a good orbit and they're good second stage having a good look Josh Sergei welcome to orbit today have a great mission dragon will take you from here over to LD dragon space x it's been a pleasure working with you towards today's launch godspeed crew 13 and thanks for flying space x

2:01:43space x traveling since for an amazing ride they say that courage is grace under pressure and the incredible team that got us to orbit today truly embody that thank you for your hard work perseverance and courageous commitment to ensuring grace was ready and safe to fly we carry with us on this journey all of you we have supported us along the way and we hope to make you proud to our exploration 75 crewmates we'll see you very soon over to you guys now what an epic ride what an epic ride it was today we proudly continued the streak of humans living and working in orbit building on the legacies of yesterday to pave the way for future of space exploration huge thanks to the phenomenal teams at NASA space x and all of our partners this launch and this mission is a direct testament to your relentless efforts deepest appreciation to my family friends you stood by me throughout this entire endeavor thank you

2:02:49I love you guys and to the Marines back on earth simplify over to you Josh thank you earth tell everyone why he tells me I'm in space I don't really believe it yet does feel weird though space x thank you for the ride it's good to be here to my colleagues friends and family in both countries NASA the Canadian spaces and see in the Royal Canadian Air Force thank you for everything you've done to get us here at the start of what will hopefully be a long a safe and an impactful mission to my family Heather Peter Nana I miss you and to everyone else thank you for the support it is time for 13 to go to work sir good I want to thank you for these so

2:04:06Thank you very much for your time, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Have a good day. Thank you, Dragon. We're having a great day, and we have nominal demitifier activation and service section Traco Checkouts. Wow, those were some great words from all four crew 13 crew members. I absolutely love courage is grace under pressure. I'm carrying that one with me. They are now on their way to their destination, the International Space Station, and now 13 and a half minutes into the flight, we had a good orbit insertion, meaning that they are now traveling over 16,700 miles per hour, and will begin their catch up to the International Space Station.

2:05:06And the nose cone deploy is now underway, the six hooks that hold the nose cone in place during the launch, and the sent portions have to retract, and then the nose cone will be able to start to swing open and deploy. Now this uncover is a number of critical systems for the flight up to the space station, including the forward bulkhead thrusters and the docking hatch, as well as the guidance navigation and control system. And yeah, the crew is now floating in space, making their way to the International Space Station. Their trip should be about eight hours long today, so we'll be joining you again later on for a docking. Yeah, and we hope to see a view of the crew. Whenever we get a chance, we'll be sure to show it. We always are on the lookout for their zero G indicator, to see what they might have brought to help them visualize that they are in space. I heard Josh Coutrix say he doesn't necessarily believe it yet. Again, he's a first time flyer. We have three first time flyers on this mission, and one return flyer, the first NASA astronaut to fly on drag and twice.

2:06:08That's NASA astronaut, a commander of crew 13, Jessica Watkins. So we are now 14 minutes and 47 seconds into the mission. Again, looking at about an eight hour flight to the space station today. They'll be docking to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony Module. It's been a great mission so far, following the lift off of crew 13 right on time at 1110 AM Eastern. Crew 13 now safely in orbit following an almost nine-minute ride to after lift off from space launch complex 40 in Florida. I'm checking my notes. It looks like the nose cone is open and moving into position. Now the crew again has about an eight hour journey before they reach their destination, the International Space Station. So docking is targeted for tonight to the forward-facing port of the station's Harmony Module. Between now and then, drag and will perform a series of burns as it catches up to the space station. That first one, which will be the boost burn about 30 minutes from now.

2:07:08Yeah, William, I'm excited to see what their zero-grabby indicator is. That's usually my favorite part. Sometimes we get to see it when we first get views inside of drag and but looks like we didn't get to see it today. Maybe we'll get some views in a moment here. So in addition to flying people, SpaceX's dragon spacecraft also enables researchers the opportunity to fly critical science to orbit. Now so far, SpaceX and Dragon have carried more than a thousand research experiments to and from low Earth orbit, both to the International Space Station as well as on our free flyer missions. From DNA sequencing to 3D printing studies enabled by Dragon and the Space Station test a variety of technology systems and materials that will be needed for future long duration exploration missions. Every mission yields critical research and learnings that help make life both on Earth and in space better. And flights like today's help us continue to lay this foundation for our future among the stars and continue our mission to make life multi-planetary. Now we'll be signing off from SpaceX for now, but before we go, we want to thank NASA for entrusting SpaceX with today's mission and thank all of you for joining us today.

2:08:16And thank you to SpaceX as well for each of you who tune in and supported today's launch. Both of us will be back with our docking coverage starting at 5.20pm Eastern tonight, October 1st, for a targeted docking to the forward facing port of the station's Harmony Module at 7pm Eastern. So for now, thank you for joining us and back over to Kennedy Space Center to wrap up today's launch coverage. Thank you for joining us. Well, if you're just joining us, welcome back. We are live here out of Houston, out of Florida. We are in Hawthorne again just to watch crew 13 launch today and we just got confirmation that the crew is safely in orbit, Zena. Yes, absolutely incredible. We got to watch the launch from right here at Kennedy Space Center. And I was certainly having so many incredible emotions just watching my friends, some of my classmates launching to space. It's so beautiful seeing humans go on and endeavor like this and knowing the incredible amount of teamwork that it took to get them there.

2:09:16And so what happens now? They have this opportunity to kind of get comfortable, correct? Yeah, we've got a couple of hours as they chase down the space station and a few important steps have to happen along the way. Right now we're opening the nose cone on dragon. That will be followed by some Ford bulkhead Draco checkouts and making sure that the environmental and life support systems are all good on board dragon before they open their visors. And then they will be able to actually float about the cabin out of their suits. Nice, absolutely. So of course, as she said, next big milestone will be docking to the International Space Station where crew 13 will join other astronauts already there. Let's head back over to NASA's Tony Hattamiyo to tell us more about the cruise mission on the orbiting lab. Hey, thanks, Megan. I'm joined here by Jennifer Buckley, the Leo Program Chief Sciences. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us today. You know, crew 13 is going to conduct an array of experiments, including research to produce stem cells in orbit. Can you talk a little bit about that research and how NASA supports the use of space station as a production platform?

2:10:21Absolutely. So one of the investigations that crew 13 will be performing on orbit is stellar stem cells. So this will be coming up in just a few weeks in our next resupply flight. This is an investigation out of Cedar Sinai in California. So it's a series of investigations they've been doing with us. And what they've been finding is with these human derived stem cells, they can create organoids. So they basically can differentiate it into the tissue of interest. So this particular group has had success on several missions, differentiating into heart tissue. And now they're also doing brain organoids. And so this is a really great use of microgravity to create these models. These 3D structures form more readily in microgravity. They tend to be a little bit larger and we have higher numbers. And what we can use these for is personalized medicine. So testing drugs with patient samples or just generalized research. These 3D structures, as you think about tissues in the human body, they're 3D as well.

2:11:25And so it makes it a really good model for studying things like Parkinson's, ALS, heart disease, and we can test medications or even just the mechanisms of what's happening. So really looking forward to that investigation. A ton of important research indeed happening on station. Speaking of commercial companies, most people know that the space station is a collaboration with our international partners across the world. But they may not know that the space station also partners with commercial companies. Can you talk a little bit more about those partnerships on station? We've really seen those types of partnerships grow over the life of the International Space Station. We've been doing research for nearly 26 years now on the ISS. And we've really seen it evolve from an orbital outpost to a world class lab. I think sometimes people are surprised to learn that the International Space Station is also part of our US National Lab system. So that means 50% of the access is dedicated to non-NASA use.

2:12:29So those are things like commercial companies, outside researchers, through the ISS National Lab. We have flown thousands of investigations to the International Space Station with over half of those being through commercial companies. They're doing things like testing their products, doing advanced colloid experiments, to benefit life here on Earth, looking at how things mix in products, pharmaceuticals, discovery is a big area to actually on this particular vehicle. We have an experiment launching in the ASCAT COBOX facility and it's looking at ways to optimize the information that's with the experience. So every mission we have lots of commercial partnerships and research happening. A lot of exciting things, looking forward to what we will see next. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And Toni will have one final interview, so we'll be back to her in just a second. But let's take another question from our audience who is following along today. Again, we know that you are interested in taking the time to send them, so let's grab one now.

2:13:35From my fifth grade class in Oklahoma, how do you navigate the language barrier while at the Space Station, whether the country's in it? Oh, great question. We actually all get a lot of language training. So for those of us who are American astronauts training or some of our European or Canadian partners, we all train in Russian language. And then our Russian cosmonaut colleagues train in English. And so on board the International Space Station, we speak both. And we're able to communicate, especially if we had to go through any kind of intense procedure together or something unexpected together. So great for operational purposes, but also really amazing to be able to share a meal and speak in multiple languages with your crewmates on board. Okay. And guys, you remember we asked you to vote in our Twitch poll. We had the question, how would you like to spend time aboard the Space Station? Let's pull up the winning results now if we can. Enjoy views of earth and overwhelmingly this was chosen 47% of the vote.

2:14:42I love that. And I really can't argue with it. You know, those views of earth, my favorite planet, best planet there is in the solar system. That just never got old for me. There's something dynamic and beautiful every time I looked out the window. So great choice. Yeah, absolutely. And actually another fact that I want to point out there is that did you know today in 1958 NASA opens for business. So this is actually our 68th birthday that we're celebrating with the crew 13 slots. Happy birthday to NASA. What a great time to light a candle. Yeah, exactly. That's right. All right. So let's get back to Tony again this time. She has Brian Hughes. He's the director of Kennedy Space Center. Hey, thanks, Megan. I'm joined here by Brian Hughes. Brian, thank you so much for joining us. You know, Kennedy Space Center has been home to some spectacular launches this year, but that's not the only thing happening on center. Can you let us know what else has been going on and what we can look forward to?

2:15:43Well, it isn't the only thing, but it's worth thinking back a little bit. So Artemis too obviously was an amazing launch. And then recently we put the Roman space telescope up in space, another super launch. And today crew 13 couldn't have gone any better. So yeah, launching here is always is always an important thing. But outside of launching, it's really about getting ready for the future just near here at the VAB. We have Artemis three and four already being stacked and worked just over at the ONC building. The Orion capsules are getting ready. So it's really about getting ready for the accelerated timeline of Artemis that administrator Isaac been put it's on. So it's an exciting time to be here at Kennedy. Outside of that our commercial partners always keep us busy. They're expanding obviously SpaceX and Blue Origin are continuing to grow in their footprints here. But we also have growth with relativity space and stoke getting their launch pads ready here for the years ahead. Exciting times indeed. You know, you are NASA's first senior director of launch operations, meaning you oversee both Kennedy Space Center here in Florida, as well as Wallops flight facility in Virginia, which also oversees some NASA launches.

2:16:55How does aligning both of these NASA facilities just help the agencies east coast launch enterprise in general? Yes. So Wallops is a great asset that NASA's had for a long time, primarily focused on science and the smaller suborbital programs like sounding rockets and balloons. But it does have a role in orbital did have many years as a crew resupply launch launch pad. But since 23 that's been dormant at Wallops. So what we had in aligning the two centers is all the engineering and technical expertise of Kennedy's launch folks now is being brought to bear. We work with the state of Virginia through the Virginia Space Port Association up there. And what's going to happen is essentially Wallops can become a pressure relief valve if you will for launch in the future. So the space for side of the Cape is maxed out on launch pads and the NASA side of the Cape is really going to turn its focus to heavy.

2:17:57We still have a need for a lot of small and medium orbital programs. And for those that aren't already here, Wallops is going to be a great asset. The future there is really exciting because it's really been underutilized. And it's a great sense that's very exciting indeed to look forward to. We can't wait for those launches. Brian, thank you so much again for joining us. And we'll send it back to you, Megan. For your full review in approximately two zero minutes. Some call outs there over the loops again. The mission continues launch happens. But of course we have so much ahead of us as they transit. The good reback and I expect that's going to fall in between our suit, doffing. I'm going to come back in a few minutes here with a briefing prior to the suit. But we're still waiting for that T plus four or five minutes and no earlier than. All right, so you give us some context there. We've got a couple of expected expected burns coming up. So dragon.

2:19:00As it chases down the international space station will execute a few burns so that it gets to the right altitude and gets to the right place at the right time. And so they we also heard them they can probably commence suit doffing again, get comfortable, get out of their launch suits. Yeah, they're in a great configuration right now. They've got great life support systems on board the dragon spacecraft. And so they'll be getting ready to doff their suits as we say. So get out of their spacesuits and get a little bit more comfortable and get any kind of needs they have taken care of. They'll be able to drink some water. Maybe even have a snack if they're feeling good. Nice. And with that, what a great time to say goodbye to you all that's going to do it for today's launch coverage. The crew has now about seven hours before it arrives at the space station. You can of course follow along with their journey by going to NASA dot gov slash multi media again. The fastest transit of to the space station by a crew dragon spacecraft. Are you okay for your record to be beat?

2:20:00Oh, yeah, records are meant to be broken. I actually wanted more time. I'm going to go back to the space station. I'm going to go back to the space station. I'm going to go back to the space station. And then you can go back to the space station and then you can go back to the space station. The fastest transit of to the space station by a crew dragon spacecraft. Are you okay for your record to be beat? Oh, yeah, records are meant to be broken. I actually wanted more time in the dragon. It was a great ride. Of course, that makes sense. You know, again, before we leave, I do just want to again echo what Jessica said pre launch, which is just that the teams that make human space flight possible. They make the impossible look easy. The extraordinary routine. What do you have to say? Oh, my gosh. Perfect sentiment. I think it's really incredible what these teams can accomplish when we work together. Human space flight is so much greater than any individual, but it is the individuals that make it great. Absolutely. Zina and you individual. Making today's broadcast great. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you sharing this moment with us, bringing your insight firsthand knowledge to this launch coverage. My pleasure. Go crew 13. Go through crew 13. And to all our guests, our teams and NASA and SpaceX and to you watching around the world.

2:21:03Thank you so much for being part of today's launch. Here's one last look at all the fun moments of crew 13's launch today. You are looking specifically inside the suit up room, the same room where NASA astronauts have suited up for crude launches from Kennedy since Apollo 7 in 1968. SpaceX technicians helped each crew member into their custom pressure suits designed to protect them if dragon lost pressure during launch or reentry. After everyone was dressed, they got a chance to chat with NASA administrator Jared Isaacman before taking part in a card game. Now this pre-launched tradition dates back decades as Commander Jessica had to lose before they could leave for the pad. The idea there is to leave all the bad luck behind so only good luck follows the crew to space. When that was over, they headed downstairs and out of crew quarters to greet family friends and supporters one final time before their flight. And off they went to launch complex 40. And then once at the pad, the crew looked up at their ride to space, pausing to take in this moment, Zena.

2:22:07There's nothing about seeing your rocket on launch day that doesn't bring you joy and excitement. And then they took the elevator up, the launch tower to walk across the crew access arm and we watched as each ingress into dragon and got into their seats. Then we watched as their seats were rotated into their position for launch and their suits were checked for any leaks. Signed how she's closed with a delayed start but still 50 minutes of margin. 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition and lift off. Go Falcon, go Dragon and go Crew 13. It's all up Crew 13 carried by Dragon Grace to the International Space Station. Got to be one outfit. At least two for your journey. All nine Berlin engines on the first stage at Max McThrust of 1.7 million pounds.