Central Florida astronaut Luke Delaney chosen for 1st NASA spaceflight
By Richard Tribou
Published on April 23, 2026.
Luke Delaney, an astronaut from Central Florida, has been chosen for his first spaceflight assignment by NASA for the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. Delaney will be part of the crew of the SpaceX Crew Dragon from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for about a six-month stay on board. His crewmates will include NASA astronaut and commander Jessica Watkins, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. This will be Delaney's first time in space and will be flying up in a SpaceX crew Dragon to relieve the crew-12 team that has been on board since March. He was selected from the 2021 class of astronaut candidates named “The Flies” and was part of 10 NASA astronaut candidates along with two international candidates from the United Arab Emirates chosen as members of the 23rd astronaut group in December 2021 from among 12,000 applicants. This class was the first NASA class to require its candidates to have at least a master's degree in a STEM-oriented field.
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