E. Michael Fincke was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1996. The Pennsylvania native is the veteran of three spaceflights, Expedition 9 in 2004, Expedition 18 in 2009, and STS-134 in 2011. For Expedition 9, Fincke served as Science Officer and Flight Engineer during his six-month stay onboard the International Space Station. While there, he performed four spacewalks. For Expedition 18, Fincke served as Commander, where he and his crew prepared the station for future six-person crews. For STS-134, Fincke served as Mission Specialist and completed three spacewalks.

Fincke is currently training for the crew flight test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, the first crewed flight for that vehicle.

Fincke and his crewmates are working closely with Boeing to develop their new spacecraft systems, which will provide roundtrip crew transportation services to the International Space Station and, along with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, return the ability to launch humans into space from United States soil. The program is intended to stimulate development of privately operated crew vehicles to be launched into low Earth orbit.