A northeast Alabama high school senior is earning national recognition as he prepares for a future in aerospace engineering. His interest in spaceflight was sparked by rocket launches and strengthened through Huntsville-area programs.
Clayton Dalton, a senior at Sylvania High School, has been named a 2026 Keynote Scholarship runner-up by the National Space Club and Foundation and will receive a $25,000 scholarship as he pursues aerospace engineering at Auburn University.
He was selected as first runner-up from more than 190 applicants, with the field narrowed to five finalists. Dalton has also been invited to attend the Goddard Memorial Dinner in Washington, D.C.
Dalton says his interest in space can be traced to a specific early memory.
“The first moment I truly remember being fascinated with space was back in 2018 watching the first Falcon Heavy launch,” he said. “I was 10 years old at the time and watching the largest rocket in the world shoot a car into space was the coolest thing imaginable.”
Living near Huntsville — home to major U.S. space and rocket programs — helped turn that interest into hands-on experience.
“I’ve also gotten to go to Space Camp multiple times and walk through the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and get to see our history on display,” Dalton said.
Through The University of Alabama in Huntsville DETECTS program, Dalton worked on weather balloon launches, collecting atmospheric data and presenting results back to the university.
He later participated in the NASA TechRise Student Challenge, where he led a team that designed and built a weather balloon experiment that flew from South Dakota. He also helped design and fly the HARV experiment through the TechRise program.
Dalton says coming from a rural community meant he sometimes had to create his own opportunities in advanced STEM work.
“Many STEM opportunities go to STEM schools and private academies, but this has only increased my dedication to space and science,” he said. “If you’re not given the opportunity, then you have to create your own.”
One way he did that was through sport rocketry. Dalton has pursued rocketry for five years and earned his Level 1 High Power Rocketry certification with the National Association of Rocketry in 2025. He has launched rockets more than 30 times, ranging from small low-altitude builds to high-power vehicles.
“The excitement builds and builds as I’m setting up and preparing the rocket,” he said. “But once I press that igniter button, it’s out of my hands now — and it blows me away, watching one launch every single time.”
Dalton plans to attend Auburn this fall to study aerospace engineering, join a university rocketry program, and compete in engineering challenges. Long term, he hopes to work in launch vehicle development with NASA or commercial space companies.
“Spaceflight is deeply important to me,” Dalton said. “I strongly believe that a robust national spaceflight program benefits our country in countless ways — economically, scientifically, and through the inspiration it provides to future generations.”
From early exposure to space programs in the Huntsville area to leading student flight experiments and earning national scholarship recognition, Dalton has steadily built real-world experience in aerospace work. Now, with engineering studies ahead and continued rocketry goals in place, the Sylvania senior is turning a long-standing interest in space into a practical career path.
Sherri Blevins is a reporter for 256 Today.
