Michael Swanson is a NASA astronaut who contributed to critical space station construction on two shuttle missions and led Expedition 40 aboard the International Space Station.

Michael Swanson’s NASA career began in 1997 as a systems engineer working on the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA), where he helped improve its navigation and control systems. In 1998, he was selected as a mission specialist and completed rigorous training in shuttle and space station systems, spacewalks, robotic arm operations, and rendezvous procedures. Over the course of his career, Swanson completed four spacewalks totaling 26 hours and 22 minutes, and logged 195 days, 15 hours, and 41 minutes in space.

His spaceflight experience includes two missions aboard the Space Shuttle, STS-117 and STS-119, which involved critical construction work on the International Space Station (ISS), including installing solar arrays and truss segments. In 2014, Swanson joined Expedition 39 aboard the International Space Station, where he spent six months performing Earth studies and biological experiments. He assumed command of the ISS for Expedition 40 before safely returning to Earth after 169 days in space, traveling nearly 72 million miles.