Steven Swanson
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via Wikipedia: Steven Swanson · see source
Steven Roy Swanson, born December 3, 1960, in Syracuse, New York, is an American engineer and retired NASA astronaut. He flew two Space Shuttle missions—STS-117 and STS-119—and one Soyuz flight, TMA-12M, all bound for the International Space Station. Across those trips, Swanson spent over 195 days off Earth and performed five spacewalks totaling 27 hours and 58 minutes.
He also worked as a CAPCOM for both ISS and Shuttle missions, and his awards include the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and the JSC Certificate of Accommodation. Before joining NASA, Swanson was a software engineer at GTE in Phoenix, Arizona. He is married with three children and claims to have posted the first ever Instagram from space.
NASA career
Swanson began his NASA career in 1987 as a systems engineer and flight engineer for the Shuttle Training Aircraft. He was selected as an astronaut in May 1998. His first mission, STS-117, launched in June 2007, where he served as a mission specialist and flight engineer. On STS-119, which launched March 15, 2009, and landed March 28, he was a mission specialist and lead spacewalker.
He launched to the ISS for Expeditions 39 and 40 on March 25, 2014, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, returning September 11, 2014. NASA announced his retirement in August 2015. Since then, he has worked at Boise State University as a distinguished educator in residence, assisting with programs like the NASA Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students. A Browncoat, Swanson added copies of the movie Serenity and the Firefly TV box set to the ISS Movie Library during STS-117 in June 2007.
Did You Know?
- He is a Browncoat—a fan of Joss Whedon's Firefly and Serenity—and added the movie and TV box set to the ISS Movie Library on STS-117 in June 2007.
- He earned a doctorate in computer science from Texas A&M University in 1998.
- Swanson considers Steamboat Springs, Colorado, his home, though he was born in Syracuse, New York.
More in Commanders of the International Space Station
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Steven Swanson (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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