Michael López-Alegría

Background

López-Alegría was born in Madrid to a Spanish father and an American mother, and raised in Mission Viejo, California. After high school, he joined the U.S. Navy, earning a Bachelor of Science in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1980 and a Master of Science in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1988.

He became a Naval Aviator in 1981 and served as an instructor pilot, a fleet reconnaissance pilot, and a test pilot. He is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School's Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security and speaks English, Spanish, French, and Russian. His son Nicolas appeared with him in the 2006 documentary Mira La Luna, and a second documentary, Son And Moon, was released in 2009.

Mission record

López-Alegría's first spaceflight was STS-73 in 1995. He later led NASA's ISS Crew Operations office before flying STS-92 in 2000 and STS-113 in 2002. On STS-92 he tested the SAFER jet backpack with Jeff Wisoff, flying up to 50 feet from the spacecraft. In October 2001 he served as an aquanaut on the first NEEMO crew.

He launched on Soyuz TMA-9 on September 18, 2006, and docked with the ISS on September 20 as commander of Expedition 14, performing five spacewalks during that mission. He undocked on April 21, 2007, after 215 days in space, setting the record for longest American spaceflight and longest Soyuz flight. He holds the American record for most EVAs (10) and total EVA duration (67 hours 40 minutes).

Post-NASA career

López-Alegría retired from NASA on March 12, 2012, and served as President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation through 2014. He then worked as an independent consultant and joined Axiom Space in 2017 as director of Business Development. He commanded Axiom Mission 1 in 2022, the first Axiom Space Crew Dragon mission to the ISS, and later commanded Axiom Mission 3, which launched on January 18, 2024.