Michael Fincke

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Michael Fincke
Michael Fincke
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on May 1, 1996
(16th NASA Group)
Calls: 3 space flights
Start of the
first space flight:
April 19, 2004
Landing of the
last space flight:
June 1, 2011
Time in space: 381d 15h 11min
EVA inserts: 9
EVA total duration: 48h 37min
Space flights

Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke (born March 14, 1967 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , USA ) is an American astronaut .

Life

Born in Pittsburgh, Fincke grew up in Emsworth ( Allegheny County ), northwest of Pittsburgh on the Ohio River . The small town now confidently calls itself “Emsworth: Home of Lt. Col. Mike Fincke ”.

Mike Fincke attended Sewickley Academy in Sewickley ( Pennsylvania ) that he left the 1985th The US Air Force (USAF) granted him a scholarship because he pledged to serve there later. He enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge ( Massachusetts ) and studied aerospace engineering. In 1989 he got his bachelor's degree and in the summer of the same year took part in a student exchange program - he studied aerospace engineering for a few months at the Moscow Aviation Institute . Back in the United States, he continued his studies in aerospace at Stanford University in Stanford ( California ) and obtained his master's degree in 1990 .

Fincke has now started his service in the USAF. Following his pilot training, he was transferred to Los Angeles Air Force Base in California in 1991 , where he worked as an engineer at the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center. Before he trained as a test pilot in 1993, he turned one of his hobbies into a profession and studied geology at El Camino College in Torrance (California) (graduated in 1993). In 1994 he graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base with honors. He came to Florida at Eglin Air Force Base, where he was assigned to the newly formed 39th Flight Test Squadron. As a flight test engineer, he was involved in improvements to the McDonnell Douglas F-15 and General Dynamics F-16 combat aircraft . In January 1996, the Air Force sent him to Japan . At the Gifu Air Force Base , he served as a liaison officer for the US side on the new XF-2 fighter aircraft developed in cooperation with Japan. Based on the Mitsubishi F-16, test flights began in March 1996.

Astronaut activity

Fincke, who likes to learn languages ​​he does not know, among other things he speaks fluent Japanese and Russian , was interested in astronomy and space travel as a young boy. He was often found at the local planetarium to quench his thirst for knowledge. For as long as he could remember he wanted to be an astronaut. To get the knowledge in books and magazines, he had taught himself to read before he started elementary school.

Mike Fincke was selected with NASA's 16th Astronaut Group in May 1996 while he was still stationed in Japan. The two-year basic training for him and his 43 classmates (10 pilots, 25 mission specialists and 9 international candidates) began in August 1996. Since autumn 1998 he has been a full-fledged mission specialist. This was followed by a deployment as a CapCom for the International Space Station (ISS) in the Russian star city near Moscow.

In July 1999 Fincke was appointed as a flight engineer together with Gennadi Padalka and Stephen Robinson in the ISS substitute team of the fourth permanent crew . After his training Fincke went back to the USA to study again. In 2001, the University of Houston Clear Lake, located in close proximity to the Johnson Space Center , awarded him a Masters in Astrogeology . He was then again transferred to the position of flight engineer in a backup crew ( sixth ISS crew with Salishan Sharipov ). During the training, he qualified as a co-pilot to guide Soyuz spaceships .

In mid-March 2002 Mike Fincke was nominated for a main crew for the first time. ISS Expedition 9 should consist of three men: in addition to Padalka as commander, Fincke and Oleg Kononenko were to fly as flight engineers. After the Columbia accident in February 2003, the crew strength of the ISS was reduced to two people for reasons of supply. This had an impact on all teams appointed up to that point. When the flight finally took off in April 2004, Kononenko was not there. At 37, Fincke was the youngest resident to have been on board the ISS until then.

Fincke set up another first service during his stay at the station: he became the first space traveler to become a father during his mission. On June 18, 2004, his wife gave birth to a daughter. Although he was unable to attend the birth himself, he was connected to his wife in the hospital by satellite phone. Only six days later he had to perform at his best again, because the first exit (EVA) was due. Because of a problem with Fincke's space suit , the project had to be canceled after only a quarter of an hour. The three other EVAs a week later, in early August and early September, all went according to plan. Fincke and Padalka returned to Earth after six months at the end of October 2004.

In 2006 Fincke was a replacement flight engineer on ISS Expedition 13 before he was appointed commander of Expedition 18 in February 2007 . On October 12, 2008, he took off with Soyuz TMA-13 for his second long-term stay on the ISS, landing on April 8, 2009.

On August 11, 2009, Fincke was nominated for the STS-134 shuttle mission . The launch of this last mission of the space shuttle Endeavor took place on May 16, 2011, the landing on June 1.

As of 2013, Fincke was assistant to the head of NASA's commercial crew department and worked closely with Boeing and SpaceX, both of which were developing a new spacecraft. On January 22, 2019, Fincke was surprisingly nominated for the crew of the Boe-CFT mission , the first manned flight of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft . He replaced Eric Boe , who was taken off the team for health reasons.

Acting

Mike Fincke had a guest appearance in a television series: In the last episode of the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise with the title "These Are the Adventures ..." ("These Are the Voyages ...", in the US on 13. First broadcast in May 2005) Fincke plays a technician who is currently working on the so-called deuterium filters. Chief engineer Tucker, played by Connor Trinneer , instructs him to work faster. Scott Bakula , who played the Enterprise Captain Archer, had contacted Fincke and given him a few episodes that Fincke and Padalka watched on the ISS. Bakula invited Fincke in a radio conversation during the flight to take on a guest role. Fincke agreed. The shooting took place at the end of February 2005.

Private

Fincke is married and has three children.

Individual evidence

  1. NASA Assigns Crew for STS-134 Shuttle Mission, Change to STS-132. NASA, August 11, 2009, accessed August 12, 2009 .
  2. NASA: NASA Announces Updated Crew Assignment for Boeing Flight Test. January 22, 2019, accessed January 27, 2019 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Michael Fincke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files