Michael John "Bloomer" Bloomfield (born March 16, 1959) is an American former astronaut and a veteran of three

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 ...

missions.

Early life and education

Born in

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

and raised in Lake Fenton, Michigan, Bloomfield received his bachelor's degree in Engineering Mechanics 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 U ...

, where he played Falcons football for coach

Bill Parcells Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells (born August 22, 1941) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons. He rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 ...

and was the team's captain. He became an

F-15 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's ...

fighter pilot with the rare combination of having graduated the Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (FWIC, pronounced 'Fwick') and then selected as a test pilot (assigned to the F-16 test squadron at

Edwards AFB 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 ...

). He earned his master's degree in Engineering Management from

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia w ...

in 1993.

NASA career

Selected by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

in December 1994, Bloomfield reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. He worked as Chief of Safety for the Astronaut Office, Chief Instructor Astronaut, Director of Shuttle Operations, and Chief of the Shuttle Branch, which oversees all Shuttle technical issues for the Astronaut Office. He first flew as a pilot aboard

STS-86 STS-86 was a Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' mission to the Mir space station. This was the last ''Atlantis'' mission before it was taken out of service temporarily for maintenance and upgrades, including the glass cockpit. Crew Spacewalk *'' Pa ...

in 1997, where he docked with the space station

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

. Bloomfield also piloted STS-97 in 2000 and commanded

STS-110 STS-110 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on 8–19 April 2002 flown by Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. The main purpose was to install the S0 Truss segment, which forms the backbone of the truss structure on the ...

in 2002, both 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 ( ...

. Bloomfield has served as Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas since 2006, before resigning from NASA in July 2007. Michael then became Vice President of the

Constellation Program The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a " ...

for ATK.

Post-NASA career

He currently serves on the board of directors at Space Center Houston and resides in suburban Houston, Texas.

References

External links

*
Spacefacts biography of Michael J. Bloomfield
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloomfield, Michael J. 1959 births Living people People from Flint, Michigan American test pilots Aviators from Michigan Air Force Falcons football players Military personnel from Michigan Old Dominion University alumni U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni United States Air Force Academy alumni United States Air Force astronauts United States Air Force officers Space Shuttle program astronauts Mir crew members