{"id":362083,"date":"2026-08-04T02:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T02:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/362083\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T02:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T02:08:08","slug":"unf-grad-turned-astronaut-to-take-first-mission-to-space-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/362083\/","title":{"rendered":"UNF grad turned astronaut to take first mission to space in September"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A University of North Florida graduate is heading to space. Astronaut Luke Delaney<\/a> will pilot NASA\u2019s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station, with a target launch date of Sept. 12. It will be his first mission to space, joining Expedition 75<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Delaney earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering from UNF in 2006 before going on to earn a degree in aerospace engineering. Jacksonville was home for him, his wife Tracey, and their family for a period of time \u2014 a chapter of life he still reflects on fondly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was early on for me and Tracey, my wife and my family \u2014 kind of a young family then,\u201d Delaney said. \u201cSo it stands out as a lot of those experiences. Experiences on UNF.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Central Florida to the cosmos<\/p>\n

Growing up in central Florida, Delaney said watching Space Shuttle launches planted an early seed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the goal was always kind of there in the background \u2014 growing up in central Florida, watching Space Shuttle launches \u2014 kind of an inspiration for moving down that track,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Before NASA, Delaney built a career as a retired Marine, naval aviator and combat veteran. He has logged more than 550 combat flight hours and, including his NASA career, more than 3,900 total flight hours across 48 models of jet, prop and rotary wing aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all just kind of melts together pretty nicely,\u201d Delaney said, \u201cand the latter portion of my career in a test pilot environment \u2014 that helped culminate everything for astronaut training and future spaceflight missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA selected Delaney to join the 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class, and he reported for duty in January 2022.<\/p>\n

Spacewalks and science on the agenda<\/p>\n

Once aboard the International Space Station, Delaney said he is looking forward to getting outside the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we are looking forward to spacewalks, and looking forward to those \u2014 and that will be fantastic,\u201d he said. \u201cAny time you get outside of a spaceship and do some maintenance and upgrade things, it just sounds like a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew also has a full science agenda. Research planned for the mission includes work to better characterize blood flow, understand how fluid shifts affect human vision in microgravity, and explore stem cell development \u2014 examining how microgravity can be used to scale those opportunities.<\/p>\n

Every challenge built on the last<\/p>\n

When asked what has been the most challenging chapter of his career \u2014 becoming a pilot, a Marine or an astronaut \u2014 Delaney said each phase prepared him for the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they all had their challenges. And it was perfect at that time for me that those challenges were something that I was ready for,\u201d he said. \u201cThey all built on each other to get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the challenge ahead will take him further than any before \u2014 out of this world entirely.<\/p>\n

Delaney is married to Tracey Delaney, and they have two daughters. His parents, Robert and Stephanie Delaney, are from Central Florida.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A University of North Florida graduate is heading to space. Astronaut Luke Delaney will pilot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1435],"class_list":["post-362083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-spacex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}