Astronauts arrive at Kennedy Space Center for SpaceX launch to space station

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The next crew bound for the International Space Station arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, with a launch now scheduled for Thursday.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Luke Delany piloted T-38 jets from NASA's Johnson Space Center, landing at the Launch and Landing Facility under a largely cloudless sky with a light breeze.

They were joined by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who rode alongside Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryantnikov, who flew with Delany.

READ MORE: Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk prepares for six-month mission to space station

"Arriving here today for us as a crew represents both kind of the culmination and the beginning of a journey for us. We've been training together as a crew for over a year now, so it is the culmination of all of that work and effort, and we're so grateful to the teams of experts around the world that have gotten us prepared and ready for this," Watkins said. "But it is also the beginning. We are excited, we are ready to fly, we are ready to join the Expedition 75 crew on board the International Space Station."

Watkins, the commander of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission, is making her second trip to space, while it will be the first for Kutryk, Delany and Teteryantnikov.

The crew is scheduled to launch no earlier than 11:10 a.m. EDT (1510 UTC) on Oct. 1 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft named Grace.

The mission was delayed from a Sept. 12 launch date after an oxidizer leak was detected in the Dragon's propulsion system during processing.

NASA announced the delay in an Aug. 29 Commercial Crew Program blog post. An update came roughly two and a half weeks later in a Sept. 16 ISS blog post, which stated SpaceX "successfully replaced an oxidizer valve in Dragon's propulsion system after a leak was detected earlier in processing."

"We are, first of all, so grateful to the teams on the ground, the SpaceX team here at the Cape, who were able to identify the issue with the vehicle on the ground with time to address it. And then for the teams that were able to identify the most appropriate, safest path forward to fix the issue," Watkins said in response to a question about the repair work.

NASA and SpaceX held a Flight Readiness Review at KSC on Friday to review readiness for final prelaunch steps.

Those steps include an engine test of the Falcon 9 rocket scheduled for Sunday and a launch day rehearsal with the crew planned for Tuesday.

For Delany, the mission's pilot and a Florida native, the arrival was a homecoming.

"Coming here in Kennedy, coming back to Florida, it's definitely near and dear to my heart. I did grow up pretty close to here. I got to watch Space Shuttle launches, and now I'm going to get to see it from a little bit different perspective, I think, in the coming days," Delany said. "So truly excited to be here, truly thankful for all the teams that have made it happen, and just a shout out to our aircraft operations folks today that got us the jets and everything together and made it work out a perfect flight over here today."

Kutryk, who will be the second Canadian to head to space this year following Jeremy Hansen's flight as part of the Artemis 2 mission in April, reflected on the moment.

"Today has been a day of reflecting on gratitude, frankly. I mean, I've flown into the Cape probably 100 times, but today is just so special," Kutryk said. "To leave Houston, you see all the people there, all the family there. You feel the support all the way across. You see the crowds of people here. You really feel that support. And so when you talk about being grateful for everything that we have, I mean, we, the crew, we feel like some of the luckiest people in the world."

Your Space Hamilton reported in September that Kutryk was preparing for his six-month mission after the launch delay.

The crew will join the Expedition 75 crew already aboard the orbiting laboratory.

With files from Spaceflight Now