John Casper 

John Casper is a veteran of four space shuttle missions – three as commander and one as pilot – and logged more than 825 hours in space between 1990 and 1996. 

John H. Casper
 NASA Bio

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He completed his first mission in 1990, serving as pilot of space shuttle Atlantis on STS-36. Aboard space shuttle Endeavour in 1993, he commanded STS-54, which deployed a $200 million NASA tracking and data relay satellite. The next year, Casper oversaw two weeks of microgravity research as commander of STS-62 on space shuttle Columbia. And on his final shuttle mission – again aboard Endeavour for STS-77 in 1996 – he served as commander on a crew that performed a record number of rendezvous sequences. 

After completing a bachelor’s degree in engineering science at the United States Air Force Academy in 1966, Casper enrolled in a Purdue graduate program designed in cooperation with the Air Force Academy for students with an interest in astronautics. Casper is one of seven graduates of the master’s program who went on to become astronauts, joining John Blaha, Roy Bridges Jr., Richard Covey, Guy Gardner, Gary Payton and Loren Shriver. 

Before being selected for astronaut training in 1984, Casper was an Air Force fighter pilot, flying 229 combat missions in Vietnam and receiving two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He also served as a Cold War fighter pilot in Europe and graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School. As a test pilot, he commanded a test squadron and flew classified aircraft. He went on to hold multiple leadership positions at NASA – including director of safety, reliability and quality assurance at the Johnson Space Center – and in the Air Force before retiring with the rank of colonel.