Edward Michael “Mike” Fincke (Colonel, USAF)
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA: Born March 14, 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but considers Emsworth, Pennsylvania to be his hometown. Married to the former Renita Saikia of Houston, Texas. They have three children. In addition to time with his family, Mike enjoys travel, Geology, Astronomy, learning new languages, and reading. He is conversant in Japanese and Russian. His parents, Edward and Alma Fincke reside in Emsworth, Pennsylvania. Renita’s parents, Rupesh and Probha Saikia formerly of Assam, India reside in Houston, Texas.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Sewickley Academy, Sewickley, Pennsylvania in 1985. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and graduated in 1989 with a bachelor of science in Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as a bachelor of science in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. This was followed by a master of science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 1990. He was awarded associates of science degree in Earth Sciences (Geology) from El Camino College in Torrance, California in 1993 and then a second master of science in Physical Sciences (Planetary Geology) from the University of Houston, Clear Lake in 2001.

ORGANIZATIONS: Geological Society of America (GSA), British Interplanetary Society.

SPECIAL HONORS: In addition to a NASA Distinguished Service Medal and a NASA Spaceflight Medal, Colonel Fincke is a recipient of the first ISS Leadership Award as well as a United States Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, three Commendation Medals, two Achievement Medals, and various unit and service awards. He is a Distinguished Graduate from the United States Air Force ROTC, Squadron Officer School, and Test Pilot School Programs and the recipient of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School Colonel Ray Jones Award as the top Flight Test Engineer/Flight Test Navigator in class 93B.

EXPERIENCE: Colonel Mike Fincke graduated from MIT in 1989, and immediately attended a summer exchange program with the Moscow Aviation Institute in the former Soviet Union, where he studied Cosmonautics. Upon graduation from Stanford University in 1990, he entered the United States Air Force. After “washing-out” of pilot training in 1991, he was reassigned to the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. There he served as a Space Systems Engineer and a Space Test Engineer. In 1994, upon completion of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School Flight Test Engineer Program, Edwards Air Force Base, California, he joined the 39th Flight Test Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where he served as a Flight Test Engineer working on a variety of flight test programs, flying in F-16 and F-15 aircraft. In January of 1996, he reported to the Gifu Test Center, Gifu Air Base, Japan where he was the United States Flight Test Liaison to the Japanese/United States XF-2 fighter program. Colonel Fincke has over 825 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft types.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in April 1996, Colonel Fincke reported to the Johnson 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. He also served as back-up crewmember for ISS Expedition-4 and Expedition-6 and is qualified to fly as a left-seat Flight Engineer (co-pilot) on the Russian Soyuz TM and TMA 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 of 2002.

Having served as the back-up Commander for ISS Expeditions -13 and -16, Colonel Fincke has been named to lead the Expedition-18 crew, starting with a Soyuz launch in October 2008 and supplemented by several Shuttle launches in 2008 and 2009.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: ISS Expedition-9 (April 18 to Oct 23, 2004). Expedition-9 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft, docking with the International Space Station on April 21, 2004. As the NASA Space Station science officer and flight engineer, Colonel Fincke spent six-months aboard the ISS continuing ISS science operations, maintaining Station systems, and performing four spacewalks. The Expedition-9 mission concluded with undocking from the station and safe landing back in Kazakhstan on October 23, 2004. Colonel 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.

APRIL 2008

Mike Fincke photo with the Terrible Towel in space