Steven Roy Swanson (born December 3, 1960 in Syracuse, New York) is an American engineer and retired

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. Swanson has flown two shuttle flights, STS-117 and

STS-119 STS-119 (ISS assembly flight 15A) was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was flown by space shuttle Discovery during March 2009. It delivered and assembled the fourth starboard Integrated Truss Segment (S6), ...

, and one Soyuz flight, TMA-12M. All of the flights were to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

. He has logged over 195 days in space and completed five spacewalks totaling 28 hours and 5 minutes. Swanson has served in other roles at NASA, such as a

CAPCOM is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', '' Mega Man'', '' ...

for both International Space Station and

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

missions. His awards and honors include the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and the JSC Certificate of Accommodation. Prior to becoming a NASA astronaut, Swanson worked for GTE in Phoenix,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

, as a software engineer. He is married and has three children.

Early life

Although born in Syracuse, New York, Swanson considers

Steamboat Springs, Colorado The City of Steamboat Springs is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Routt County, Colorado, United States. Steamboat Springs is the principal city of the Steamboat Springs, CO Micropolitan Stat ...

to be his home. He graduated from Steamboat Springs High School in 1979, and went on to the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

to receive a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

engineering physics Engineering physics, or engineering science, refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, aerospace, materials or mechanical en ...

in 1983. In 1986, he received a master of applied science in computer systems from

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 1 ...

. He later received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

in 1998.

NASA career

Swanson joined NASA in 1987 as a systems engineer and a

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is the member of an aircraft's flight crew who monitors and operates its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referred to as the "air ...

working on the Shuttle Training Aircraft. He was selected as an astronaut in May 1998. His first mission was STS-117, which launched June 2007. Swanson was a mission specialist and flight engineer on this flight. He served as a mission specialist and lead spacewalker on

, which launched March 15, 2009 and landed on March 28. He launched to the

as a member of Expedition 39/ 40 on March 25, 2014 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and returned to Earth on September 11, 2014. NASA announced Swanson's retirement in August 2015. Since then he has worked at Boise State University as a distinguished educator in residence assisting with programs such as th
NASA SUITS Program
Steven Swanson is a Browncoat, or fan of Joss Whedon's ''Serenity'' and ''Firefly''. He added copies of the movie and box set of the TV series to the ISS Movie Library on STS-117 in June 2007.

References

External links

Steve Swanson Website
*
Russian Federal Space Agency ISS Crews biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanson, Steven R. 1960 births Living people American astronauts American computer scientists University of Colorado alumni Florida Atlantic University alumni Texas A&M University alumni People from Syracuse, New York Commanders of the International Space Station Engineers from New York (state) Space Shuttle program astronauts Spacewalkers