NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission: How and when to watch astronauts launch towards International Space Station

NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 is poised to launch to the International Space Station on October 1. The mission will bring the crew of four to the orbital outpost within nine hours after they launch at 11:10 am EDT on Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The members of Crew-13 will be transported inside a Dragon capsule that will launch atop SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has already completed a static fire test of the rocket, which is waiting at the pad. So with liftoff inching closer, let's take a look at how you can catch the action live from the comfort of your homes.

How to watch

SpaceX will begin live coverage of the event around an hour prior to the targeted launch time. The company will stream the event through a live webcast, which will be available on SpaceX's website. There is a backup launch opportunity at 10:47 am EDT on Friday, October 2, should the launch be scrubbed on Thursday due to the weather in Florida or any other reason. At the moment, forecasts suggest cloudy and humid weather with a chance of a couple of showers and a thunderstorm. If the launch does take place on Thursday, Dragon's docking with the forward-facing port of the Harmony module is expected around 8 pm EDT.

Global launch and docking timings

The following are the local liftoff and potential docking timings for ten cities around the world. As is with the case with all rocket launches, these timings are dependent upon several factors and could change.

Los Angeles, USA 
Launch: October 1, 8:10 am PDT; Possible docking: October 1, 5 pm PDT

Chicago, USA
Launch: October 1, 10:10 am CDT; Possible docking: October 1, 7 pm CDT

London, UK
Launch: October 1, 4:10 pm BST; Possible docking: October 2, 1 am BST

Paris, France
Launch: October 1, 5:10 pm CEST; Possible docking: October 2, 2 am CEST

Cape Town, South Africa
Launch: October 1, 5:10 pm SAST; Possible docking: October 2, 2 am SAST

Dubai, UAE
Launch: October 1, 7:10 pm GST; Possible docking: October 2, 4 am GST

New Delhi, India
Launch: October 1, 8:40 pm IST; Possible docking: October 2, 5:30 am IST

Tokyo, Japan

Launch: October 2, 12:10 am JST; Possible docking: October 2, 9 am JST

Sydney, Australia
Launch: October 2, 1:10 am AEST; Possible docking: October 2, 10 am AEST

Auckland, New Zealand

Launch: October 2, 4:10 am NZDT; Possible docking: October 2, 1 pm NZDT

Goal of Crew-13

The four members of Crew-13, who are Roscosmos Sergey Teteryatnikov, NASA astronauts Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins, and CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, will bring the head count on board the space station to eleven. They will become part of Expedition 75. The number will be reduced to seven again after the departure of Crew-12 next month. Crew-13 will help in the advancement of astronaut health studies when operating in the microgravity of space, which in turn will help future crews to the Moon and Mars. NASA is planning to put humans on the Moon, beginning with Artemis IV in 2028.

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