NASA astronaut Lt. Col. Mike Fincke will visit the SUNYIT campus on Thursday, April 21, 2005. Lt. Col. Fincke was NASA Space Station science officer and flight engineer for the Soyuz mission to the International Space Station last year, spending six months in space and performing four spacewalks. He will share his experiences during a presentation Thursday, April 21, at 9 a.m., in the Campus Center ’Cats’ Den. The event is free and open to the public.

Selected by NASA in April 1996, Lt. Col. Fincke completed two years of training and evaluation, and was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Station Operations Branch. He served as an International Space Station (ISS) Spacecraft Communicator, a member of the Crew Test Support Team in Russia, and as the ISS crew procedures team lead. He also served as back-up crewmember for the ISS Expedition-4 and Expedition-6 and is qualified to fly as a left-seat Flight Engineer (co-pilot) on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He is a recipient of two United States Air Force Commendation Medals, the United States Air Force Achievement Medal, and various unit and service awards.

Edward Michael Fincke graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1989 with a bachelor of science in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a bachelor of science in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. In 1990, he received a master of science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University; in 2001, he earned a master of science degree in Physical Sciences (Planetary Geology) from the University of Houston, Clear Lake.

After graduation from Stanford University in 1990, he entered the U. S. Air Force and was assigned to the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, where he served as a Space Systems Engineer and a Space Test Engineer. In 1994, upon completion of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, California, he joined the 39th Flight Test Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where he served as a Flight Test Engineer working on a variety of flight test programs, flying the F-16 and F-15 aircraft. He has over 800 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft types.

Fincke was born in Pittsburgh, but considers Emsworth, Penn., to be his hometown. He and his wife, the former Renita Saikia of Houston, Tex., have two children—one of whom was born while Fincke was on the space station.