engineering

Michael Fincke

Michael Fincke is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael Fincke rather than just read about it. In short: Edward Michael Fincke (born March 14, 1967) is an American former NASA astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel. He is fourth among NASA astronauts ranked by time spent in space, tallying up over 549 days.

Key takeaways

Michael Fincke belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael Fincke to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael Fincke from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Edward Michael Fincke (born March 14, 1967) is an American former NASA astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel. He is fourth among NASA astronauts ranked by time spent in space, tallying up over 549 days. Fincke has logged nine spacewalks, totaling 48 hours and 37 minutes of EVA time. He is unique in that six of those spacewalks were in a Russian Orlan spacesuit. Before his next launch, Fincke has been certified as a pilot for both Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon, as well as a co-pilot/flight engineer on the Soyuz and a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle. Fincke was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but considers its suburb Emsworth to be his hometown. He is a retired United States Air Force officer and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of three long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer on Expedition 9, as commander of Expedition 18, and as a flight engineer on Expedition 73 and commander of Expedition 74, as well as one Space Shuttle mission, STS-134, as a mission specialist.

Education Fincke graduated from Sewickley Academy in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, in 1985. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences. He then received a Master of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1990, and a second Master of Science degree in planetary geology from the University of Houston–Clear Lake in 2001. He also attended El Camino College in Torrance, California, where he studied Japanese and geology, and Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh.

Military career Immediately after graduating from MIT in 1989, Fincke attended a summer exchange program with the Moscow Aviation Institute in the former Soviet Union, now Russia, where he studied Cosmonautics. After graduation from Stanford University in 1990, Fincke entered the United States Air Force where he was assigned to the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base in California. There, he served as a Space Systems Engineer and a Space Test Engineer. In 1994, upon completion of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base in California, Fincke joined the 39th Flight Test Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where he served as a flight test engineer working on a variety of flight test programs, flying the F-16 and F-15 aircraft. In January 1996, he reported to the Gifu Test Center, Gifu Air Base in Japan, where he was the United States flight test liaison to the Japanese/United States XF-2 fighter program. By 2024, Fincke had accumulated over 2000 flight hours in more than 30 different varieties of aircraft and held the rank of colonel. Fincke belongs to the Association of Space Explorers and The Explorers Club.

NASA career Fincke was selected by NASA in April 1996 to be an astronaut. He reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Station Operations Branch serving as an International Space Station spacecraft communicator (ISS CAPCOM), a member of the Crew Test Support Team in Russia and as the ISS crew procedures team lead. In July 1999, Fincke was assigned as backup crewmember for the International Space Station Expedition 4 crew. Additionally, he served as a backup for the ISS Expedition 6 crew and was qualified to fly as a left-seat flight engineer (co-pilot) on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He was the commander of the second NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO 2) mission, living and working underwater for 7 days in May 2002. In 2013, Fincke served as cavenaut into the ESA CAVES training in Sardinia, alongside Soichi Noguchi, Andreas Mogensen, Nikolai Tikhonov, Andrew Feustel, and David Saint-Jacques.

Expedition 9

Fincke was the space station science officer and flight engineer for ISS Expedition 9 from April 18 through October 23, 2004. The mission was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft and docked with the International Space Station on April 21, 2004. Fincke spent six months aboard the ISS continuing ISS science operations, maintaining station systems, and performing four spacewalks. Expedition 9 concluded with undocking from the station and safe landing back in Kazakhstan on October 23, 2004. Fincke completed his first mission in 187 days, 21 hours, and 17 minutes, and logged a total of 15 hours, 45 minutes, and 22 seconds of EVA time in four spacewalks. Fincke was the backup commander for Expedition 13 and Expedition 16.

Expedition 18

Fincke was commander of Expedition 18. He arrived at the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 on October 14, 2008 with cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and space flight participant Richard Garriott. While Richard Garriott was aboard, Fincke participated during his personal time (along with Yury Lonchakov, Gregory Chamitoff, and Richard Garriott) in filming and starring in a science-fiction movie made in space, Apogee of Fear. On April 8, 2009, Fincke, Lonchakov, and space tourist Charles Simonyi returned to Earth aboard the TMA-13. Replacing Fincke as commander of the space station was Gennady Padalka, whom he served with on Expedition 9.

STS-134 Fincke was a mission specialist on STS-134, which was his only flight on the Space Shuttle. Fincke made three spacewalks during the mission. He completed 26 hours and 12 minutes of spacewalking time, bringing his total EVA time to 48 hours and 37 minutes. As of July 2025, this places him 17th all time on the list of spacewalkers.

Commercial Crew Program

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael Fincke

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael Fincke claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael Fincke before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael Fincke ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael Fincke

In research: Michael Fincke appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael Fincke in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael Fincke is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1967 births, American male television actors, American male voice actors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael Fincke outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael Fincke in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael Fincke means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael Fincke out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael Fincke in simple terms?

Why does Michael Fincke matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael Fincke?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael Fincke.