Col. Gregory H. Johnson is from Class of 1984
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- NASA has selected an Air Force Academy graduate to pilot space shuttle mission STS-134 to the International Space Station. Class of 1984 Air Force Academy graduate and retired Air Force Col. Gregory H. Johnson will serve as the pilot.
Johnson previously flew as a pilot on STS-123 in 2008. He was born in South Ruislip, Middlesex, United Kingdom, but graduated from Park Hills High School in Fairborn, Ohio.
Johnson has a master's degrees from Columbia University and the University of Texas, Austin.
Johnson was pilot of STS-123 Endeavour is 2008, which completed both launch and landing at night. It was the 25th Shuttle/Station assembly mission.
Endeavour’s crew delivered the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module – Pressurized Section, the first pressurized component of JAXA’s Kibo Laboratory, and the final element of the station’s Mobile Servicing System, the Canadian-built Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator.
In addition to pilot duties aboard Endeavour, Johnson was a primary robotic arm operator, employing both the Space Shuttle and ISS robotic arms in support of numerous tasks throughout the mission. The STS-123 crew performed a record five spacewalks while docked to the station. The crew also delivered Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, and returned to Earth with ESA’s Léopold Eyharts.
He has logged 4,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft. To date, Johnson’s space flight experience includes 250 orbits of the Earth, traveling over 6 million miles in 15 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes and 54 seconds.
Johnson is one of 39 Air Force Academy graduates to become an astronaut.
NASA also announced Wednesday that it is changing the designation of the STS-134 mission to STS-132.
The flight will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, to the station. The AMS is a state-of-the-art cosmic ray particle physics detector designed to examine fundamental issues about matter and the origin and structure of the universe.
The flight will include three spacewalks and the installation of the AMS to the exterior of the space station using both the shuttle and station arms. The AMS will be attached to the right side of the Station's truss, or backbone.
The shuttle Atlantis' STS-132 mission is targeted to launch in May 2010.
Information provided by U.S. Air Force Academy.
