31 Facts About Michael Fincke

Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke was born on March 14,1967 and is an American astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel.

Michael Fincke formerly held the American record for the most time in space until it was broken by Scott Kelly on October 16,2015.

Michael Fincke is unique in that six of those spacewalks were in a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

Mike Michael Fincke was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but considers its suburb Emsworth to be his hometown.

Michael Fincke is a retired United States Air Force officer and an active NASA astronaut.

Michael Fincke flew on one Space Shuttle mission, STS-134, as a mission specialist.

Michael Fincke is married to Renita Saikia, and together, they have three children; son Chandra and daughters Tarali and Surya.

Michael Fincke logged just under 382 days in space, placing him 10th among the most experienced American astronauts.

Michael Fincke graduated from Sewickley Academy in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, in 1985.

Michael Fincke attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences.

Michael Fincke attended El Camino College in Torrance, California, where he studied Japanese and geology.

Immediately after graduating from MIT in 1989, Michael Fincke attended a summer exchange program with the Moscow Aviation Institute in the former Soviet Union, now Russia, where he studied Cosmonautics.

In 1994, upon completion of the US Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base in California, Michael Fincke joined the 39th Flight Test Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where he served as a flight test engineer working on a variety of flight test programs, flying the F-16 and F-15 aircraft.

Michael Fincke belongs to the Association of Space Explorers and The Explorers Club.

Michael Fincke was selected by NASA in April 1996 to be an astronaut.

Michael Fincke reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996.

In July 1999, Michael Fincke was assigned as backup crewmember for the International Space Station Expedition 4 crew.

Michael Fincke was the commander of the second NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations mission, living and working underwater for 7 days in May 2002.

In 2013, Michael Fincke served as cavenaut into the ESA CAVES training in Sardinia, alongside Soichi Noguchi, Andreas Mogensen, Nikolai Tikhonov, Andrew Feustel and David Saint-Jacques.

Michael Fincke was the space station science officer and flight engineer for ISS Expedition 9 from April 18 through October 23,2004.

Michael Fincke spent six months aboard the ISS continuing ISS science operations, maintaining station systems, and performing four spacewalks.

Michael Fincke completed his first mission in 187 days, 21 hours and 17 minutes, and logged a total of 15 hours, 45 minutes and 22 seconds of EVA time in four spacewalks.

Michael Fincke was the backup commander for Expedition 13 and Expedition 16.

Michael Fincke arrived at the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 on October 14,2008 with cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and space flight participant Richard Garriott.

Michael Fincke was a mission specialist on STS-134, which was his first and only flight on the Space Shuttle.

Michael Fincke has completed 26 hours and 12 minutes of spacewalking time, bringing his total EVA time to 48 hours and 37 minutes.

Michael Fincke has been deeply involved with NASA's Commercial Crew Program for over a decade.

Michael Fincke has contributed significantly to the development of both the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.

In January 2019, NASA announced that Michael Fincke would fly on CST-100 Starliner's Boeing Crew Flight Test.

However, in June 2022, NASA revised the mission to a two-person flight test with Michael Fincke serving as the backup spacecraft test pilot.

On September 30,2022, NASA announced that Michael Fincke would fly as the pilot on the Starliner's first operational mission, Boeing Starliner-1.