Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke

Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
NASA Astronaut

Personal data:
Born 14 March 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Married, father of one child. Fincke enjoys hiking, flying, travel, Geology, Astronomy, learning new languages, and reading.

Education:
Graduated from Sewickley Academy, Sewickley, Pennsylvania in 1985. Graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1989 with a bachelor degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics and one in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. He received a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 1990 and second Master of Science in Physical Sciences (Planetary Geology) from the University of Houston in 2001.

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

Special honours:
Recipient of two United States Air Force Commendation Medals, the United States Air Force Achievement Medal, and various unit and service awards.

Experience:
In 1989 Fincke attended a summer exchange programme with the Moscow Aviation Institute in the former Soviet Union, where he studied Cosmonautics. After graduation from Stanford University in 1990, Fincke entered the United States Air Force. He served as a Space Systems Engineer and a Space Test Engineer. In 1994 he joined the 39th Flight Test Squadron, serving as a Flight Test Engineer. In January of 1996, he reported to the Gifu Test Centre, Gifu Air Base in Japan, where he was the United States Flight Test Liaison to the Japanese/United States XF-2 fighter programme. Fincke has over 800 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft types.

NASA experience:
After selection in April 1996, Fincke started training at the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. After 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.

In July 1999, Fincke was assigned as back-up crewmember for the ISS Expedition 4 crew. He also served as a backup for the ISS Expedition 6 crew and is qualified to fly as a left-seat Flight Engineer (co-pilot) on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Current assignment:
Fincke is currently assigned as a Flight Engineer on the ISS Expedition 9 crew, which is due to fly to ISS on Soyuz flight 8S in April 2004.

(Source: NASA)