Gregory H. Johnson

• STS- 123 (2008)
• STS- 134 (2011)

Gregory Harold "Box" Johnson ( born May 12, 1962 in South Ruislip, Middlesex, United Kingdom ) is an American astronaut. He should not be confused with his colleague Gregory Carl Johnson.

Training

He visited the Park Hills High School in Fairborn, Ohio until 1980. Afterwards he made in 1984 his Bachelor in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy. In 1985 he received his Master of Science from Columbia University in flight mechanics. He received in 2005 from the University of Texas a MBA.

Military training

Johnson went in May 1984 on the United States Air Force Academy and was in May 1986 Air Force pilot at Reese Air Force Base in Texas. He was a flight instructor at the Northrop T-38 until he moved in 1989 to the McDonnell Douglas F -15. After training on the F- 15E Johnson went to the 335th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base of North Carolina. In December 1990, Johnsen was used in Operation Desert Storm in Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia and flew 34 combat missions in the Second Gulf War. Two years later, in December 1992, he again went for three months to Saudi Arabia to fly an additional 27 combat missions in Operation Southern Watch.

He was selected as the U.S. Air Force test pilot in 1993 and went to the Edwards Air Force Base in California, which he left in December 1994 with success. After the successful training as a test pilot, he was transferred to the 445th Flight Test Squadron and tested there different type of aircraft, including F-15C / D, NF -15B and T- 38A / B. In August 1997, he went to the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

Johnson has flown more than 4,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft.

Astronauts activity

Johnson was selected in June 1998 for the 17th astronaut group of NASA. From 1998 to 2000, he completed his basic training. After that, he was technical assistant to the Director of Flight Crew Operations Directorate ( FCOD ). In this capacity, he worked on the Shuttle Avionics cockpit upgrade, the redesign of the cockpit displays for future Space Shuttle missions with. 2001 he joined the Space Shuttle department and assisted the crews of missions STS -100 and STS- 108. He also worked with the investigation of the Columbia crash and was the astronauts Represented when testing the effects of the foam chunks on the edge of the leaf.

Johnson's first space flight took place in March 2008. He was pilot on STS -123, which is the logistics module ELM -PS, which is part of the Japanese Kibo module, and brought the Canadian robot hand to the International Space Station. On 11 August 2009 Johnson was nominated for the shuttle mission STS- 134. The start to this final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour took place on 16 May 2011, the landing on June 1.

Private

Johnson is married and has three children.