Mike Fincke | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Fincke in 2025 | |
| Born | Edward Michael Fincke (1967-03-14)March 14, 1967 (age 58) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Other names | Spanky[1] |
| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) Stanford University (MS) El Camino College (AS) University of Houston (MS) |
| Spouse | Renita Saikia |
| Children | 3 |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
| Rank | Colonel,USAF (ret.) |
Time in space | 495 days, 18 hours, 48 minutes [refresh] (currently in space) |
| Selection | NASA Group 16 (1996) |
TotalEVAs | 9 |
Total EVA time | 48h 37m |
| Missions | |
Mission insignia |         |
Edward Michael "Mike"Fincke (born March 14, 1967) is an Americanastronaut and retiredUnited States Air Forcecolonel. He formerly held the American record for the most time in space (382 days) until it was broken byScott Kelly on October 16, 2015. Fincke has logged nine spacewalks, totaling 48 hours and 37 minutes of EVA time. He is unique in that six of those spacewalks were in a RussianOrlan spacesuit. Before his next launch, Fincke has been certified as a pilot for bothBoeing Starliner andSpaceX Crew Dragon, as well as a co-pilot/flight engineer on theSoyuz and a mission specialist on theSpace Shuttle.
Fincke was born inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania but considers its suburbEmsworth to be his hometown.[2] He is a retiredUnited States Air Force officer and an activeNASA astronaut. He is a veteran of three long-duration missions aboard theInternational Space Station as aflight engineer onExpedition 9, as commander ofExpedition 18, and as a flight engineer onExpedition 73 and commander ofExpedition 74, as well as oneSpace Shuttle mission,STS-134, as amission specialist. Fincke is conversant inJapanese andRussian.[3] He is married to Renita Saikia, and together, they have three children: son Chandra and daughters Tarali and Surya.[3]
Fincke logged just under 382 days in space, placing him 10th among the most experienced American astronauts.
Fincke graduated fromSewickley Academy inSewickley, Pennsylvania, in 1985. He attended theMassachusetts Institute of Technology on anAir ForceROTC scholarship and graduated in 1989 with aBachelor of Science degree inaeronautics andastronautics as well as aBachelor of Science degree inEarth,atmospheric andplanetary sciences.[3] He then received aMaster of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics fromStanford University in 1990, and a secondMaster of Science degree inplanetary geology from theUniversity of Houston–Clear Lake in 2001.[3] He also attendedEl Camino College inTorrance, California, where he studiedJapanese andgeology,[3] andCommunity College of Allegheny County inPittsburgh.[4]
Immediately after graduating from MIT in 1989, Fincke attended a summer exchange program with theMoscow Aviation Institute in the formerSoviet Union, now Russia, where he studied Cosmonautics. After graduation from Stanford University in 1990, Fincke entered theUnited States Air Force where he was assigned to the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center,Los Angeles Air Force Base inCalifornia. There, he served as a Space Systems Engineer and a Space Test Engineer. In 1994, upon completion of theU.S. Air Force Test Pilot School,Edwards Air Force Base in California, Fincke joined the 39th Flight Test Squadron,Eglin Air Force Base inFlorida, where he served as a flight test engineer working on a variety of flight test programs, flying theF-16 andF-15 aircraft. In January 1996, he reported to the Gifu Test Center, Gifu Air Base in Japan, where he was the United States flight test liaison to the Japanese/United StatesXF-2 fighter program. By 2024, Fincke had accumulated over 2000 flight hours in more than 30 different varieties of aircraft and held the rank ofcolonel.[3] Fincke belongs to theAssociation of Space Explorers andThe Explorers Club.[3]
Fincke was selected byNASA in April 1996 to be an astronaut. He reported to theJohnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Station Operations Branch serving as an International Space Station spacecraft communicator (ISS CAPCOM), a member of the Crew Test Support Team in Russia and as the ISS crew procedures team lead.[3]
In July 1999, Fincke was assigned as backup crewmember for theInternational Space StationExpedition 4 crew. Additionally, he served as a backup for the ISSExpedition 6 crew and was qualified to fly as a left-seat flight engineer (co-pilot) on the RussianSoyuz spacecraft.
He was the commander of the second NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO 2) mission, living and working underwater for 7 days in May 2002.[3]
In 2013, Fincke served as cavenaut into theESA CAVES[5] training inSardinia, alongsideSoichi Noguchi,Andreas Mogensen,Nikolai Tikhonov,Andrew Feustel, andDavid Saint-Jacques.
Fincke was the space station science officer and flight engineer for ISSExpedition 9 from April 18 through October 23, 2004. The mission was launched from theBaikonur Cosmodrome inKazakhstan aboard theSoyuz TMA-4 spacecraft and docked with the International Space Station on April 21, 2004. Fincke spent six months aboard the ISS continuing ISS science operations, maintaining station systems, and performing four spacewalks. Expedition 9 concluded with undocking from the station and safe landing back in Kazakhstan on October 23, 2004. 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 ofEVA time in four spacewalks.[3]
Fincke was the backup commander forExpedition 13 andExpedition 16.[3]
Fincke was commander ofExpedition 18. He arrived at the International Space Station aboard theSoyuz TMA-13 on October 14, 2008 with cosmonautYuri Lonchakov andspace flight participantRichard Garriott. While Richard Garriott was aboard, Fincke participated during his personal time (along with Yury Lonchakov,Gregory Chamitoff, and Richard Garriott) in filming and starring in a science-fiction movie made in space,Apogee of Fear. On April 8, 2009, Fincke, Lonchakov, and space touristCharles Simonyi returned to Earth aboard the TMA-13.
Replacing Fincke as commander of the space station wasGennady Padalka, whom he served with on Expedition 9.
Fincke was amission specialist onSTS-134, which was his only flight on theSpace Shuttle. Fincke made three spacewalks during the mission. He has completed 26 hours and 12 minutes of spacewalking time, bringing his total EVA time to 48 hours and 37 minutes.[3] As of July 2025, this places him 17th all time on thelist of spacewalkers.
Fincke has been deeply involved with NASA's Commercial Crew Program for over a decade. From 2014-2019, he served as the Astronaut Office Chief of the Commercial Crew Branch during the original Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts award. He has contributed significantly to the development of both the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.
In January 2019, NASA announced that Fincke would fly onCST-100 Starliner’sBoeing Crew Flight Test.[7] However, in June 2022, NASA revised the mission to a two-person flight test with Fincke serving as the backup spacecraft test pilot. On September 30, 2022, NASA announced that Fincke would fly as the pilot on the Starliner's first operational mission,Boeing Starliner-1 (PCM-1).[8] However, in March 2025, he was announced as the pilot ofSpaceX Crew-11 due to ongoing testing with theBoeing Starliner Calypso following technical issues during theBoeing Crew Flight Test.[9][10]
Fincke has been certified as a co-pilot/flight engineer for the Soyuz, a mission specialist for the flight deck crew of the Space Shuttle, and a pilot for Starliner and Crew Dragon. His extensive work in spacecraft development included significant contributions to Starliner's development through his work in the Avionics and Software Integration Lab (ASIL), focusing on flight software refinement, systems integration, and human-spacecraft interfaces.
Throughout his career, Fincke has remained at the forefront of testing and developing human-rated spacecraft, leveraging his engineering, flight test, and astronaut experience to contribute to the next era of space exploration.
On August 1, 2025, Fincke launched on NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station, where he will serve as a member ofExpedition 73/74.
 | Master Astronaut Observer Badge |
 | Command Space Operations Badge |
 | Meritorious Service Medal |
  | Air Force Commendation Medal with twooak leaf clusters |
 | Air Force Achievement Medal with oak leaf cluster |
 | NASA Distinguished Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters |
 | NASA Space Flight Medal with two oak leaf clusters |
 | National Defense Service Medal withservice star |
 | Air Force Training Ribbon |
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration.
| Preceded by | ISS Expedition Commander October 24, 2008, to April 8, 2009 | Succeeded by |
People currently inlow Earth orbit | |||||
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| International Space Station (Expedition 73) |
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| Tiangong (Expedition 9) |
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NASA Astronaut Group 15 ← NASA Astronaut Group 16 →NASA Astronaut Group 17 | |||||||
| Pilots | |||||||
| Mission specialists |
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| International mission specialists |
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| Authority control databases: Academics |
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