CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — For those living in Florida, it has become common to hear about astronauts heading to the International Space Station on missions.

But it is rare to find out that one of those astronauts ran around a Central Florida neighborhood as a kid.

What You Need To Know

Luke Delaney shares with Spectrum News the warm memories he has of growing up in Debary
This will be his first time being in space; he is the pilot for the Crew-13 mission
He talks about what hee is looking forward to once he is in space for the first time

Having been born in Miami, Luke Delaney considers Debary his hometown, where he graduated from Deltona High School in 1997.

The 46-year-old astronaut — whose first time in space will be the Crew-13 mission set to launch in September — shared what it was like growing up in Debary and around Volusia County during an interview with Spectrum News.

“Yeah, you know, growing up in Debary, it was pretty rural back in the 90s, at least in my opinion. So, I remember fishing with my dad and fishing really across the different lakes and even down at the St. Johns (River). You got some really good areas there. A lot of time outdoors, so in the woods, doing trail and different things, hiking,” said the married father of two daughters.

He shared more in the video.

He attended the University of North Florida, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2006.

A decade later, he got his master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School.

His career spanned from being in the U.S. Marine Corps to being a test pilot and then a test pilot instructor.

After he retired from the Marines in 2020, he became a research pilot and aerospace engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

He was selected by NASA to join the 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class.

And becoming an astronaut is like a second career, he said.

“Yeah, you know, truly this feels like a whole second career at this point, while growing up in Florida, you know, you’re relatively close to the Space Coast, seeing space shuttle launches, having kind of an affinity for or curiosity for engineering and understanding things, and then also having just an interest in aviation, everything just kind of aligns,” he said, as he continued more in the video.

His awards and honors are a laundry list of accomplishments. Some of them are:

Two NASA Group Achievement Awards: Graduated with Honors (Top 10%), The Basic School,
Marine Officer Training
Commodore’s List with Distinction
Navy Flight Training
Meritorious Service Medal
Air Medal (7th Award)
Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal

Being in the Marine Corps has helped him train to be an astronaut.

“Yeah, you know truly Marine Corps military training has a lot of good foundational preparation for this kind of job, working in austere locations, working in small teams that are integrated into larger teams and just building that framework, that architecture, that knowledge, that has lended itself nicely for training in the NASA environment, training for Crew 13, training for working as an expedition on a space station has been very similar in a lot of ways. We worked together, we work together to solve complex problems truly,” he shared.

He said that Crew-13 Cmdr. Jessica Watkins gave him sound advice since she is the only member of the mission who has been to space before.

“Yeah, Jessica gives great advice, so she’s been up there, she kind of knows the ropes. She’s been really great in tailoring our training appropriately for what we’re going to do,” Delaney said. “So, she gives great advice on how to live and operate in space and we’re using that right now in the training environment to enhance some of those training flows.”

The pilot for the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station shared what his thoughts will be like for being at low-Earth orbit for about six months and how he is looking forward to seeing our home planet in a new way.

“… It probably is not going to be a surprise, but one of the biggest things I’m looking forward to is the space walk environment. So, I think it’s exciting to go up and work on a spaceship and work in a spaceship, but when it comes to getting outside and working on the outside of a spaceship, that’s kind of dynamic and exciting for me,” Delaney said. “So, taking a look at Earth from outside the space station is going to be just a momentous event for me.”

While it will be his first time in space, due to his military career, he has been away from his family. But it is not every day that one goes to space for a job.

Delaney shared what that conversation with his family was like.

“Well, it wasn’t maybe an easier conversation than you might expect, having done some military deployments; we’re used to being gone for longer, separated for long periods of time. The unique aspect actually with space flight is we’ll probably have more communication on a daily basis there than I ever did for different deployments,” he said. “I think they take these things very well. They’re kind of used to this type of operational environment.”

Delaney and his wife recently became grandparents, as they welcomed two granddaughters into the world a few months ago.

“So I got two daughters that are around 30 years old and we just added, extended our family with two granddaughters a few months ago, so, exciting,” the new grandfather said.

Crew-13 is the 13th crew rotation mission as part of SpaceX’s human space transportation system with NASA.

Including the 2020 Demo-2 flight test, SpaceX has sent up astronauts to the International Space Station 14 times, which is all part of the U.S. space agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

It allows NASA to partner with private space companies to transfer astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Delaney is joined on the Crew-13 mission by Watkins, and mission specialists Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.

The Crew-13 launch is set for no earlier than mid-September.