Crew-13 pilot reflects on career, training, and upcoming science ahead of flight to ISS

Date:
Tue, 04 Aug 2026 20:05:26 +0000

Description:
After a previously targeted launch date in November, NASA has moved up the next International The post Crew-13 pilot reflects on career, training, and upcoming science ahead of flight to ISS appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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After a previously targeted launch date in November, NASA has moved up the next International Space Station (ISS) crew launch, Crew-13, from November to no earlier than Sept. 12, 2026. Despite losing two months of training time, the Crew-13 astronauts remain ready for the mission. Crew-13s pilot, Luke Delaney, discussed this and more with NSFs Sawyer Rosenstein in an interview ahead of launch.

Delaney is flying to space for the first time, as are Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. The commander, Jessica Watkins, is flying for a second time after first flying on Crew-4.
The crew will fly their mission aboard Crew Dragon Grace . Delaney noted that with the earlier launch date, they can still achieve all of their training goals.

From left, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney meet with teams from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a visit to the Vehicle Assembly Building. (Credit: NASA)

There [was] some compression in some ways, but I think there was some trade space, so we leveraged some efficiencies in training and still met all the criteria, Delaney said to NSF. It can be flexible, so as your launch dates changetraining complements it; it is a little bit of an effort, but [they] move things around and we are easily achieving our full training events.

Delaney was first selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2021 as part of the 23rd astronaut class. Each class is given a nickname from the previous ASCANs or astronaut candidates. His class was nicknamed The Flies.

There is excitement watching Nicole [Ayers] go up, certainly watching Chris [Williams] go up as well on a Soyuz, Delaney said. Those two were the first
to go up on the different vehicles, so thats exciting to support them and watch that happen. The 23rd group of NASA astronauts with JSC director
Vanessa Wyche in 2021. (Credit: NASA) See Also Crew-13 Updates ISS Forum Section NSF Store Click here to Join L2

Delaney is not the only member of The Flies featured on the upcoming ISS expedition. Now were getting to fly and meet up there with Anil [Menon] and form an expedition with his Soyuz crew and just have one large team up there operating, thats exciting, Delaney said. NSF previously spoke with Dr. Anil Menon , who was in the medical profession, including space medicine, before his selection.

Delaney, however, has had a different journey. Luke enlisted with the US Marine Corps in 1998 as a naval aviator. He saw combat in December 2001 in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. After returning and primarily flying the KC-130, he eventually became a test pilot instructor on the T-6B, C-12C, U-6A, and NU-1B. In total, including time with NASA, Delaney has logged more than 3,700 hours of flight time in 48 different aircraft. Being an instructor, though, is something he found helpful when transitioning to NASA.

It does help when youre going from a capacity of executing at an individual level versus training and now instructing, Delaney explained. I think in a
lot of ways I learned more as an instructor than I did as a student because now youre having to accommodate different learning methods for folks, and try to identify better ways to support people. So when you think of leadership, kind of service-based leadership, and making sure youre supporting teammates and crewmates the best way you can, that definitely helps round out a lot of those things. NASA Astronaut candidate Luke Delaney operates the AH-64E simulator. (Credit: Brittany Trumbill, Fort Rucker, Army via DVIDS)

Delaney grew up in Deltona in central Florida, just 70 km from the Kennedy Space Center. He recalls being inspired by Space Shuttle launches when
growing up.

In elementary school, if there was a launch, they would typically take the kids outside, and wed watch the launch from the elementary school, Delaney recalled. I definitely remember catching a night launch of a Space Shuttle, and that lights up the sky, and then you can feel the rumble.

He says thats part of the reason hes an astronaut now.

Its just hard to fathom back then, you know, watching people go to space and having that interest develop, and then being able to come full circle like this is just a super exciting opportunity, Delaney said.

After leaving the Marines in 2020, he joined NASAs Langley Research Center in Virginia to assist with airborne science missions. Those included atmospheric data collection flights, air traffic management concepts, and other Earth science efforts. Delaney says that can be complemented by on-orbit work hell do aboard the Station. Crew-13 commander, Jessica Watkins, assists Delaney during training. (Credit: NASA)

Were always looking to collect data and characterize our environment, our climate, our Earth, everything a little bit better, Delaney said. A lot of that can happen on Station, too. I think theres a complementary aspect there when it comes to Earth observation that we can do, and also some of the sensors and data collection thats happening inherently on Space Station.
Those things overlap in a lot of ways and can enhance the data collection effort on Earth.

Delaney says hes looking forward to studying the bodys physiological
responses to spaceflight, including fluid shifting and vision implications. Hes also specifically mentioned interest in performing research on stem
cells. While he wont get to do a lot of glovebox work, there are a lot of different things hes been tasked to do.

There is an interesting aspect I think about being a NASA astronaut, and
thats youre training as a generalist in a lot of ways, Delaney explained. So, when it comes to geology, I dont have a lot of background there, but Ive learned a lot over the last few years on geological aspects, and then also
for biology and science.

All of this, he says, is to benefit humanity, and thats something hes very proud of.

A lot of what were doing on Earth to better understand space, were doing in space to better understand Earth.

(Lead image: NASA astronaut Luke Delaney as seen during training inside a Crew Dragon simulator. Credit: SpaceX)



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/08/crew-13-delaney-interview/


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