Topic: Michael Fincke

Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke (born 14 March 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but considers Emsworth, Pennsylvania to be his home town) is a United States Air Force officer and a NASA astronaut, who has served two tours aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer and commander. He is a researcher for the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Project. Fincke is conversant in Japanese and Russian. He is married to Renita Saikia and together, they have three children; son Chandra and daughters Tarali and Surya.

Fincke has logged 365 days in space, placing him third behind Peggy Whitson and Michael Foale for the most time in space by an American astronaut. He has the record along with Gennady Padalka for the most amount of ISS based spacewalks (6)-- all in the Russian Orlan spacesuit.

Fincke graduated from Sewickley Academy in Sewickley, Pennsylvania in 1985. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and graduated in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in aeronautics and astronautics as well as a bachelor's degree in Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences. He then received a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1990 and second master's 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.