Jeffrey Williams (astronaut)

Early life and education

Williams was born in Superior, Wisconsin, and grew up in Winter, Wisconsin. As a youth he attained the rank of Star Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated from Winter High School in 1976, then earned a degree in applied science and engineering from the U.S. Military Academy in 1980, receiving an Army commission. Later he obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and a degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College.

NASA career

Williams worked at Johnson Space Center from 1987 to 1992 before training as a test pilot. NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 1996. In July 2002 he commanded the NEEMO 3 mission, living and working underwater for six days. His first spaceflight was STS-101 in 2000, which delivered supplies to the International Space Station using a Spacehab double module and an Integrated Cargo Carrier pallet.

During that mission he performed a spacewalk with James Voss and reboosted the station from 230 miles to 250 miles altitude; the crew returned after over nine days. He later flew on Soyuz TMA-8, replacing Expedition 12 astronaut William S. McArthur, and served as Expedition 13 flight engineer and science officer, returning to Earth on September 28, 2006. During that six-month stay he orbited Earth more than 2,800 times, conducted hundreds of experiments, performed two spacewalks, and took more photographs of Earth than any previous astronaut.

Many of those photos appear in his book The Work of His Hands: A View of God's Creation from Space. On August 24, 2006, a taped message he made for a NASA press conference was accidentally played over the air-to-ground loop, revealing that the Crew Exploration Vehicle would be named Orion. He also served as a flight engineer for Expedition 21 and assumed command of Expedition 22 in November 2009, having arrived via Soyuz TMA-16 on September 30, 2009. He and Flight Engineer Maksim Surayev landed their Soyuz TMA-16 in Kazakhstan on March 18, 2010, ending a 167-day stay.

Did You Know?

• During the Jamboree on the Air in October 2009 he communicated with Boy Scouts in Texas from the International Space Station.
• He is married to Anne-Marie Williams.