Navy Cmdr. Michael L. Coats's decision to join the astronaut corps was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
The son of an Air Force bomber pilot, Coats grew up with airplanes. So, when it came time to choose his own career, the decision was easy - flying.
Since his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968, Coats, 38, has flown more than 3,500 hours in 22 different types of aircraft, including 350 combat missions in Vietnam.
He now is the co-pilot aboard the space shuttle Discovery on its first seven-day flight. It's his first space mission.
'As a test pilot, it's always exciting when you're flying the first flight of a vehicle,' Coats said in an interview. 'It's an honor, in a way, to get to fly it the first time.'
Coats, a self-professed 'football fanatic' and history buff, is a native of Riverside, Calif., and the oldest of four children.
A year after his graduation from the Naval Academy, he was designated a naval aviator and assigned a two-year tour on an attack squadron aboard the USS Kittyhawk in Southeast Asia. He received 46 awards for his flying skills and heroism.
After Vietnam, Coats became a test pilot and later served as a flight instructor at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.
In 1977, he earned a master's degree in administration of science and technology from George Washington University. Two years later, he received a second master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.
In between degrees, NASA asked him to join the astronaut corps.
Coats said the transition from military flier to an astronaut was natural.
'I came on at a time when the war was still going on. I went over to war and came back and applied for test pilot school and just happend to be there at the right time when NASA decided to select more astronauts,' Coats said.
The brown-haired, blue-eyed Coats is married to the former Diane Eileen Carson, of Oklahoma City, Okla. They have two children.
