Teams closed the hatch on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft Grace on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, NASA reported, after communication checks were completed. The spacecraft was being prepared for launch to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov aboard.

Liftoff for the Crew-13 mission was planned for 11:10 a.m. EDT, less than two hours away at the time of the update. Teams continued to monitor weather at the launch pad.

The primary weather concerns for the launch area were listed as the cumulus cloud rule, thick cloud layers rule and flight through precipitation.

This is the second flight to the space station for Grace, which made its maiden flight in 2025 on Axiom Mission 4.