Crew Commander
Mike Fincke (Lt Col, USAF)
NASA Johnson Space Center

Mike is an American Astronaut who will first fly in space in 2003. His mission will be to the International Space Station and he will stay in space for about 5 months. He speaks English, Russian and Japanese.

He was born in 1967 and is now 35 years old. When he was a kid, Mike watched the Apollo missions to the moon and hoped to fly in space someday himself.

Mike graduated from MIT and Stanford with degrees in Aerospace Engineering and in Earth and Planetary Sciences. In studying these subjects, Mike was immersed in and captivated by air, sea and space environments.

In the Air Force, Mike has served as a Space Systems Engineer and a Space Test Engineer. He attended the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, and served as a Flight Test Engineer flying the F-16 and F-15 aircraft in Florida.

In the NASA Space Program Mike has been a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for the first Astronauts to the Space Station as well as a back-up to the 4th long-duration crew on the Space Station.

He is looking forward to practice for life in space by living under the ocean.

His underwater hero is Bill Todd, a PADI Divemaster and lead guitar in the famous rock band, " The Rockit Scientists".