Michael S. Hopkins

Michael Scott Hopkins (born December 28, 1968) is a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, and a current NASA astronaut.[1] Hopkins was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20. He made his first spaceflight as a Flight Engineer on Soyuz TMA-10M/Expedition 37/Expedition 38, from September 2013 until March 2014. He was the first member of his astronaut class to fly in space.[2]

Michael S. Hopkins
Born (1968-12-28) December 28, 1968
Lebanon, Missouri, U.S.
StatusActive
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Illinois B.S. 1991
Stanford University M.S. 1992
OccupationAerospace engineer
Special assistant
Space career
NASA Astronaut
RankColonel, USAF
Time in space
166d 6h 27min
Selection2009 NASA Group
Total EVAs
2
Total EVA time
12 hours and 58 minutes
MissionsSoyuz TMA-10M (Expedition 37/38), USCV-1 (Expedition 64/65)
Mission insignia

Biography

Early life and education

Michael Scott Hopkins was born on December 28, 1968 in Lebanon, Missouri but grew up on a farm in Richland, Missouri in a United Methodist family.[3] After graduating from the School of the Osage High School in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, in 1987, he entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While there, he played defensive back for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team.[4] He graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering. He followed his undergraduate studies with a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University, which he earned in 1992.

Military career
Mike Hopkins in flight suit while serving as special assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Hopkins was a member of Air Force ROTC while at the University of Illinois, where he was a distinguished graduate. After graduating with his bachelor's degree he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in January 1992. Early in his career he was stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico working on advanced space system technologies. In 1996, he attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School as a flight test engineer. He graduated in class 96B as a Distinguished graduate and top flight test engineer. Following Test Pilot School he was assigned to the 418th Flight Test Squadron testing the C-17 and C-130 aircraft. In 1999, he was sent to Canada on an exchange program. While there he lived in Cold Lake, Alberta working with the Canadian Flight Test Center. In 2002, he was selected as an Olmsted Scholar by the George and Carol Olmsted Foundation and was sent to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California studying foreign language. After six months of language training he was sent to Parma, Italy studying political science at the Università degli Studi di Parma. In 2005, Hopkins was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Project Office at the Pentagon where he was a project engineer and program manager. Following this assignment, in 2008 he was assigned as a Special Assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Cartwright. He was working with the Joint Chiefs when he was assigned to be an astronaut candidate.[5]

NASA career

In 2009 Hopkins was one of nine astronauts selected by NASA as part of NASA Astronaut Group 20, he began training alongside his Group mates and five international mission specialists later that year at the Johnson Space Center, completing his training in November 2011 after two years of scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, spacewalks, robotics, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training[6].

Following completing astronaut training, Hopkins was made available to work other jobs in the NASA Astronaut Office and was eligible for a future flight assignment.

Expedition 37/38

In February 2011 Hopkins was assigned to the crew of ISS Expedition 37/38, becoming the first member of his astronaut class to be given a flight assignment. He began training alongside Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky for a long-duration flight to the Space Station[7].

Hopkins, joined by Kotov and Ryazansky, launched on board the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft on 25 September 2013, the trio docked with the International Space Station several hours later, where they all joined the Expedition 37 crew alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano[8]. Shortly before his arrival aboard the station, the crew had welcomed the Orbital Sciences Corporation Orb-D1 mission, the first demonstration flight of Orbital's Cygnus unmanned resupply spacecraft, flying under the Commercial Resupply Services contract[9].

Hopkins during an EVA with Rick Mastracchio

Following the departure of Soyuz TMA-09M, carrying Yurchikin, Nyberg and Parmitano, Hopkins and his two crewmates joined the Expedition 38 crew, with Kotov taking over as Station commander. Prior to the departure of Soyuz TMA-09M they were shortly joined with the remaining three Expedition 38 crew members: Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Tyrin, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata aboard Soyuz TMA-11M. This unusual "direct handover" was in order to allow the crew of Soyuz TMA-11M to bring up an Olympic torch, to be returned by the crew of Soyuz TMA-09M days later as part of the Olympic Torch Relay for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia[10]. During Expedition 38 Hopkins participated in two spacewalks alongside Mastracchio lasting five hours and 28 minutes and 7 hours and 30 minutes respectively. During the spacewalks Mastracchio and Hopkins performed maintenance and upgrades on the exterior of the station. Also during ISS-38 Hopkins was aboard the station for the berthing and release of Cygnus CRS Orb-1, the first operational flight of the Cygnus spacecraft[11].

Hopkins (left) with Rick Mastracchio during a Thanksgiving meal on the ISS

Hopkins and his two crew mates departed the station aboard Soyuz TMA-10M on 10 March 2014, leaving Tyrin, Masstrachio and Wakata aboard the station as the initial crew of Expedition 39. The trio landed in Kazakhstan less than five hours later, ending a 166 day spaceflight[12].

Crew Dragon

In August 2018, Hopkins and Victor Glover were assigned to fly on the first mission to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Crew Dragon as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development Program.[13] The two were later joined by NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi in March 2020.[14] In June 2020, Hopkins was nominated for transfer from the Air Force to the new Space Force.[15]

Hopkins, Glover, Noguchi and Walker are scheduled to launch towards the station in late 2020 ahead of a long-duration mission.

Personal life

Hopkins is married to the former Julie Stutz[16] and has two sons.[17] In 2013, Hopkins, formerly a communicant in the Methodist Church, was received into the Catholic Church, joining his wife and his children who are Catholics.

Awards and decorations
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal
Aerial Achievement Medal
 Air Force Commendation Medal with bronze oak leaf cluster
 Air Force Achievement Medal with two bronze oak leaf clusters
 National Defense Service Medal with bronze service star
Air Force Training Ribbon

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

  1. NASA HQ (June 29, 2009). "NASA Selects New Astronauts for Future Space Exploration". NASA. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  2. "NASA And Partners Name Upcoming Space Station Crew Members". NASA. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
  3. Sadowski, Dennis (7 April 2016). "For Catholic astronauts, flying to space doesn't mean giving up the faith". Catholic News Service. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  4. Mumm, Susan (2009-07-14). "AE Alum Chosen for 2009 Astronaut Class". Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19.
  5. "In Their Own Words: Michael S. Hopkins". NASA. 2009-06-29.
  6. https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/michael-s-hopkins/biography
  7. https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/feb/HQ_11-044_ISS_Crews.html
  8. http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss_soyuz_tma10m.html
  9. https://www.nasa.gov/content/cygnus-en-route-for-sunday-rendezvous-with-station
  10. https://www.nasa.gov/content/olympic-torch-completes-longest-relay-in-history
  11. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition38/index.html
  12. https://www.nasa.gov/content/expedition-38-lands-in-kazakhstan-completing-mission
  13. "NASA Assigns Crews to First Test Flights, Missions on Commercial Spacecraft". NASA. August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
  14. https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/03/31/nasa-jaxa-assign-two-more-astronauts-to-second-piloted-crew-dragon-flight/
  15. "PN2019 — Michael S. Hopkins — Space Force". U.S. Congress. June 17, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  17. Wood, Paul (2008-07-28). "NASA thinks former UI football player has right stuff". Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette.
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