Michael J. McCulley

• STS -34 ( 1989)

Michael James McCulley (* August 4, 1943 in San Diego, California, USA ) is a former American astronaut.

McCulley received in 1971 a Bachelor and a Masters in Metallurgy Engineering from Purdue University.

McCulley went to the United States Navy in 1961 and served first on various submarines. After completing his studies at Purdue University from 1965 to 1970 he trained as a naval aviator and then attended the Empire Test Pilots School in Britain, where he was trained as a test pilot. After being used as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River in Maryland, he moved to inserts on the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga and USS Nimitz.

Astronauts activity

In May 1984, McCulley was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate. After training as a shuttle pilot, he was among other things a Weather Coordinator, Technical Assistant in the Department of Flight Crew Operations and a member of the support team at Kennedy Space Center used.

STS -34

On October 18, 1989 McCulley began as a pilot of the space shuttle Atlantis into space. The main payload was the Jupiter probe Galileo. She was abandoned along with the rocket upper stage Inertial Upper Stage ( IUS ) in space. Further experiments on the Earth exploration, environmental research, materials technology, astronomy and medicine were carried out and it was an IMAX camera on board.

According to the NASA

After retiring from NASA in October 1990 McCulley joined Lockheed Martin Space Operations. From 1996, he worked for United Space Alliance. In November 1999, he was Chief Operating Officer ( COO) and Chief Executive Officer in May 2003 (CEO, Managing Director) at United Space Alliance. In September 2007, McCulley went from CEO post at United Space Alliance to retire.

Private

Michael McCulley is married and has six children.