Gregory Harold "Box" Johnson (born May 12, 1962) 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

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. Johnson is a veteran of two space flights,

STS-123 STS-123 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was flown by Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. STS-123 was the 1J/A ISS assembly mission. The original launch target date was 14 February 2008 but after the delay of ...

and STS-134. He served as pilot on his first mission, which delivered the Kibo logistics module and the

Dextre Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), is a two armed robot, or telemanipulator, which is part of the Mobile Servicing System on the International Space Station (ISS), and does repairs that would otherwise r ...

robot arm 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 ...

. Johnson was also assigned as the pilot to the STS-134 mission, which launched on May 16, 2011, and landed on June 1, 2011. Greg Johnson has also served in numerous roles for NASA including as a

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 several missions. Gregory H. Johnson (Colonel, USAF, Ret.) was the President and executive director for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (

CASIS The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), a non-profit organization, is the manager of the International Space Station United States National Laboratory, a US government-funded laboratory with principal research facilities located ...

) until March 10, 2018. He is now working with Lockheed Martin.

Background

Johnson was born in South Ruislip,

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

, United Kingdom. He graduated from Park Hills High School (now

Fairborn High School Fairborn High School is a public high school for grades 9-12 in Fairborn, Ohio. It currently is the only high school in the Fairborn City Schools district. The mascot is the Skyhawk. The school has approximately 1,500 students, varying by school ...

Fairborn, Ohio Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 34,620 at the 2020 census. Fairborn is a suburb of Dayton, and part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the only city in the world named Fairborn, a port ...

in 1980. He is an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

in the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: Aeronautics, aeronautical engineering and Astronautics, astronautical engineering. A ...

from the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Uni ...

in 1984, a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in flight structures engineering from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1985, and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 2005. Johnson is married to the former Cari M. Harbaugh. They have three children, Matthew, Joseph, and Rachel.

Military career

Johnson received his commission from the United States Air Force Academy in May 1984 and attended pilot training at Reese Air Force Base, Texas. He was retained as a T-38A instructor pilot until 1989, when he was selected for an F-15E Eagle assignment. After completing initial F-15E training, Johnson was assigned to the 335th Fighter Squadron, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. In December 1990, Johnson deployed to Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia, flying 34 combat missions in support of Operation

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

. In December 1992, he was again deployed to Saudi Arabia for three months, flying an additional 27 combat missions in support of Operation Southern Watch. In 1993, he was selected for Air Force Test Pilot School at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...

. After graduation, he was assigned to the 445th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards, where he flew and tested F-15C/E, NF-15B, and T-38A/B aircraft. He has logged over 5,000 flight hours in more than 50 different aircraft. The story of the name "Box" has been a mystery. During an interview with a group of Executive Management students at the University of Texas, Johnson stated that the origination of the name "Box Johnson" came from his tour in Desert Storm. Johnson incurred a back injury that led him to being sent home early. He put all of his belongings in a box and then he was taken back to the states. The box was left in the barracks as a reminder to all his fellow soldiers to stare at thinking about how he was at home. So after a while they wrote "Box Johnson" on the box and the name stuck.

NASA career

Selected by NASA in June 1998, he reported for training in August 1998. He completed Astronaut Candidate Training in 2000. Following initial training and evaluation, astronaut candidates receive technical assignments within the Flight Crew Operations Directorate before being assigned to a space flight. In 2000, Johnson was assigned as a Technical Assistant to the Director, Flight Crew Operations Directorate (FCOD). In conjunction with that position, Johnson was assigned to the Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade (CAU) council – redesigning cockpit displays for future Space Shuttle missions. His design and evaluation work with CAU has continued to the present. In 2001, Johnson was reassigned from FCOD to the Space Shuttle Branch, where he has held various positions including direct support to the crews of STS-100 and

STS-108 STS-108 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Endeavour''. Its primary objective was to deliver supplies to and help maintain the ISS. STS-108 was the 12th shuttle flight to visit the In ...

, chief of shuttle abort planning and procedures for contingency scenarios, and ascent procedure development. He also was a key player on several " tiger teams" during the investigation into the cause of the Columbia accident in 2003. Johnson was the astronaut representative to the External Tank (ET) foam impact test team that eventually proved that ET foam debris on ascent could critically damage the shuttle's leading edge thermal protection system. In 2004, Johnson was designated as the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Safety Branch, focusing on all aspects of Space Shuttle, ISS, and T-38 safety, with special emphasis on improving specific operational procedures and techniques to make astronauts safer in all three vehicles. In 2005, Johnson was appointed as a crew representative supporting the design and testing of NASA's newest spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle. Johnson was the pilot on

. The launch of STS-123 was March 11, 2008. Johnson was picked to be the mission's primary robotic arm operator. He retired from the Air Force on February 1, 2009, and continued to serve NASA as a civilian. Johnson was the pilot of STS-134, the final flight of Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' and the penultimate flight of the

Space Shuttle Program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its ...

Awards and honors

Johnson has been awarded the 2005 Stephen D. Thorne Top Fox Safety Award, the 2005 Dean's Award for Academic Excellence,

McCombs School of Business The McCombs School of Business (McCombs School or McCombs) is a business school at The University of Texas at Austin, a public research university in Austin, Texas. In addition to the main campus in Downtown Austin, McCombs offers classes outside ...

, NASA Superior Performance Award, and the 1996 Lieutenant General Bobby Bond Award for the top Air Force test pilot. Johnson was a distinguished graduate of U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the U.S. Air Force Academy. His military decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Meritorious Service Medal (2),

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

(4), Aerial Achievement Medal (3), Air Force Commendation Medal, and the

Air Force Achievement Medal The Achievement Medal is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The Achievement Medal was first proposed as a means to recognize outstanding achievement or meritorious service of military personnel who were not eligible to recei ...

(2).

References

External links