Charles Owen Hobaugh (born November 5, 1961, in Bar Harbor,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

) is a former

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, succeeding t ...

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 ...

and a retired

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...

officer. He has had three

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...

s, all of which were

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 to the

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

, lasting between 10 and 13 days. Hobaugh was selected to be an astronaut in 1996, and his first spaceflight was STS-104, for which he was designated Pilot of Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. That mission took place in July 2001, less than a year after the space station received its first long-duration crew. His most recent spaceflight was in November 2009, STS-129 on ''Atlantis'' again; this time he was designated Commander. In total, he has logged 36 days in space.

Education

In 1980 he graduated from North Ridgeville High School, North Ridgeville, Ohio. In 1984 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in

Aerospace Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

from the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

. From January 1993 to August 1994 he attended the University of Tennessee Space Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association.

Awards and honors

Hobaugh has received several awards and honors, including those listed below. * U.S. Naval Academy Distinguished Graduate * Joe Foss Award for Advanced Jet Training *

U.S. Naval Test Pilot School The United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS), located at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River in Patuxent River, Maryland, provides instruction to experienced United States Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, and foreign military experi ...

Distinguished Graduate * Strike/Flight Air Medal * Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal * Combat Action Ribbon *

Navy Unit Commendation The Navy Unit Commendation (NUC) is a United States Navy unit award that was established by order of the Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal on 18 December 1944. History Navy and U.S. Marine Corps commands may recommend any Navy or Marine Co ...

Military career

Hobaugh received his commission as a

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in May 1984. He graduated from The Basic School in December 1984. After a six-month temporary assignment at the Naval Air Systems Command, he reported to Naval Aviation Training Command and was designated a

Naval Aviator Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...

in February 1987. He then reported to

VMAT-203 Marine Attack Training Squadron 203 (VMAT-203) was a squadron in the United States Marine Corps that trained naval aviators to fly the AV-8B Harrier. Also known as the Hawks, the squadron was based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and f ...

for initial AV-8B Harrier training. Upon completion of this training, he was assigned to

VMA-331 Marine Attack Squadron 331 (VMA-331) was an Ground attack aircraft, attack squadron in the United States Marine Corps. The squadron, also known as the “Doodlebugs” and “Bumblebees,” was part of Marine Aircraft Group 31, 2nd Marine Aircraf ...

and made overseas deployments to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, and flew combat missions in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

during

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

embarked aboard the . While assigned to VMA-331, he attended Marine Aviation Warfare and Tactics Instructor Course and was subsequently assigned as the Squadron Weapons and Tactics Instructor. Hobaugh was selected for

and began the course in June 1991. After graduation in June 1992, he was assigned to the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate as an AV-8 Project Officer and as the ASTOVL/JAST/JSF Program Officer. While there, he flew the AV-8B, YAV-8B (VSRA) and

A-7E The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV). The A-7 was developed during the early 1960s as replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its design was ...

. In July 1994, he went back to the Naval Test Pilot School as an instructor in the Systems Department, where he flew the F-18,

T-2 Buckeye The North American T-2 Buckeye was the United States Navy's intermediate training aircraft, intended to introduce U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps student naval aviators and student naval flight officers to jets. It entered service in 1959, begin ...

, U-6A and gliders. Hobaugh was assigned to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School when he was selected for the astronaut program. In September 2010 he retired from the U.S. Marine Corps. Hobaugh has logged over 5,000 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft and has over 200

V/STOL A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do not require runways at al ...

shipboard landings.

NASA career

Selected by

in April 1996, Hobaugh reported to the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...

in August 1996. He completed two years of training and evaluation, and was qualified for flight assignment as a pilot. Hobaugh was initially assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems/Operations Branch. Projects included Landing and Rollout, evaluator in the

Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory The Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) was a facility at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It was the only facility in the Space Shuttle Program where actual orbiter hardware and flight software can be integrated and ...

(SAIL), Advanced Projects, Multifunction Electronics Display Enhancements, Advanced and Upgrade, Rendezvous and Close Proximity Operations and Visiting Vehicles prior to his first flight assignment. Most recently, he served as Capsule Communicator, working in the Mission Control Center as the voice to the crew. Hobaugh was the reentry and landing

CAPCOM is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

for the STS-107 mission, on which the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed on reentry. He spoke the words "''Columbia'', Houston. UHF Comm Check" several times after Mission Control had lost contact with ''Columbia''.

STS-104

Hobaugh flew as the pilot of STS-104 (July 12–24, 2001). This mission was the tenth mission to the

(ISS). During the 13-day flight the crew conducted joint operations with the

Expedition 2 Expedition 2 (also called ISS EO-2) was the second long-duration spaceflight aboard the International Space Station, immediately following Expedition 1. Its three-person crew stayed aboard the station from March to August 2001. In addition to st ...

crew and performed three

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...

s to install the Quest Joint Airlock and to outfit it with four high-pressure gas tanks. The mission was accomplished in 200 Earth orbits, traveling 5.3 million miles in 306 hours and 35 minutes.

STS-118

He flew as pilot on STS-118 in August 2007 for 13 days.

STS-129

Hobaugh served as commander on the STS-129 mission aboard for 10 days in November 2009.

Civilian career

Hobaugh was hired by

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

in 2011.

Personal life

Hobaugh is married to the former Corinna Lynn Leaman of

East Petersburg, Pennsylvania East Petersburg is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,591 at the 2020 census. Geography East Petersburg is located in north-central Lancaster County at (40.100079, -76.352649). Pennsylvania Route 72 ...

; they have four children. He enjoys weight lifting, volleyball, boating, water skiing, snow skiing, soccer, bicycling, running, rowing and competing in triathlons.

References

External links

Spacefacts biography of Charles O. Hobaugh
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobaugh, Charles O. 1961 births Living people United States Marine Corps astronauts People from Bar Harbor, Maine United States Naval Academy alumni United States Naval Test Pilot School alumni United States Marine Corps colonels United States Naval Aviators United States Marine Corps personnel of the Gulf War Recipients of the Air Medal Space Shuttle program astronauts