Veteran astronaut Mike Foreman has retired from NASA to join a Houston-based consulting firm. A retired captain in the U.S. Navy, Foreman’s last day with the agency is July 31.
“Mike is a great American who has served our nation for 35 years,” said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We have been lucky to have him as part of our NASA team, and wish him and his family the best.”
Foreman grew up in Wadsworth, Ohio. He holds degrees from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Designated a Naval Aviator in 1981, Foreman has flown more than 7,000 hours in 50 different aircraft.
Foreman was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in 1998 and flew on two space shuttle missions, accumulating more than 26 days in space. He also performed five spacewalks, spending 32 hours and 19 minutes outside performing space station assembly tasks. He flew as a mission specialist for STS-123 on space shuttle Endeavour in March 2008. The mission delivered the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module and the Canadian-built Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, to the station. His next mission was STS-129 on space shuttle Atlantis in November 2009. The mission delivered two logistics carriers and approximately 30,000 pounds of replacement parts for station power systems.
When not flying in space, Foreman held a variety of technical assignments in the Astronaut Office. He also served as chief of External Programs at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland from June 2010 through May 2011. He most recently served as the Safety Branch chief in the Astronaut Office. There, he also supported the Exploration Branch, working on the Commercial Crew Development Program.
Foreman’s complete biography is available at:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/foreman.html
