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| Astronaut Bob Behnken is retiring from NASA after 22 years with the space agency. (Image credit: NASA) |
Bob Behnken is retiring from NASA after a pioneering 22-year career.
Bob Behnken spent a total of 93 days in space over the course of three
separate missions. Most of his off-Earth time came on Demo-2, SpaceX's
first-ever crewed flight, which sent Behnken and fellow NASA astronaut Doug
Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) for two months in the summer
of 2020.
His last day at the agency is today (Nov. 11), NASA officials announced.
"Bob Behnken is a distinguished and talented astronaut, and an effective
ambassador for our never-ending mission to explore the cosmos," NASA
Administrator Bill Nelson
said in a statement
on Thursday (Nov. 10).
"Bob and fellow NASA astronaut Doug Hurley launched into history with their
impeccable command of NASA and SpaceX's Demo-2 mission and played a pivotal
role in helping a new era of commercial space take flight," Nelson added.
"Along with the entire NASA family, I appreciate Bob's service to our
country and wish him all the best in his next endeavor."
Behnken grew up in St. Ann, Missouri. He earned bachelor's degrees in
physics and mechanical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis
in 1992, a master's in mechanical engineering from the California Institute
of Technology (Caltech) in 1993, and a Ph.D. in the same field from Caltech
four years later, according to NASA's Thursday statement.
Behnken joined NASA as an astronaut candidate in July 2000. He first left
Earth in 2008, serving as a mission specialist on the STS-123 flight of the
space shuttle Endeavour, which delivered Japan's Kibo laboratory and
Canada's Dextre robotic arm to the ISS. He performed three spacewalks during
the nearly 16-day mission.
Behnken flew to the orbiting lab again in 2010, on Endeavour's two-week-long
STS-130 mission. That flight also brought key hardware to the ISS — the
Tranquility module and the seven-window cupola, which affords astronauts
stunning views of their home planet.
He performed three spacewalks during that 2010 flight and four more over the
course of Demo-2, racking up a total of 10 extravehicular activities
overall, according to the NASA statement.
Behnken also held the post of NASA's chief astronaut from 2012 to 2015 and
was deputy of NASA's Flight Operations Directorate from September 2021
through April 2022.
"Bob served the agency in a vital role as an astronaut and contributed
greatly to some of NASA's most important and groundbreaking endeavors," NASA
human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders said in the same statement.
"During his career, he flew missions to help build a world-class science
laboratory in space, flew the first commercial crew spacecraft to orbit, and
left his mark in the astronaut corps," she added. "All of these
contributions to human spaceflight will continue to benefit all of us as we
continue to push new boundaries."
Behnken is also a former U.S. Air Force colonel who accrued more than 2,000
flight hours in more than 25 different types of aircraft, according to the
NASA statement. He retired from military service in February of this
year.
"I am humbled to have had the opportunity to represent our nation as a NASA
astronaut, and thankful to have been a part of the team that returned human
spaceflight to the United States back in 2020," Behnken said in the same
statement. "I am so looking forward to seeing and being amazed by what
people of this great agency will accomplish next."