Michael Foale

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**Colin Michael Foale**
Astronaut
Image:Michael Foale.jpg
Nationality	British / American
Born	6 January 1957 Louth, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
Occupation¹	Astrophysicist
Space time	373d 18h 18m
Selection	1987 NASA Group
Mission(s)	STS-45, STS-56, STS-63, STS-84, STS-103, Soyuz TMA-3, Expedition 8
Mission insignia	Image:Sts-56-patch.jpg Image:STS-84 patch.jpg Image:Soyuz TMA-3 Patch white.jpg Image:Expedition 8 insignia (iss patch).png
¹ previous or current

Colin Michael Foale PhD CBE (born 6 January 1957) is a Anglo-American astronaut. He is a veteran of four space shuttle missions and extended stays on both Mir and the International Space Station. He was the first Briton to perform a space walk, and holds the record for most time spent in space by a US citizen: 374 days, 11 hours, 19 minutes.

Born in Louth and raised in Cambridge, Foale was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and Queens' College, Cambridge University, receiving a doctorate in laboratory astrophysics in 1982.

Image:Foale ZeroG.jpg

Foale joined the mission operations division of NASA in 1983 and was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1987. He flew on space shuttle missions STS-45 (1992), STS-56 (1993) and STS-63 (1995). In the latter mission he undertook a four-hour EVA. He was then selected for an extended mission aboard the Russian Mir space station. During a four month stay on Mir in 1997, Mir was struck by a Progress resupply vessel and Foale conducted a 6-hour EVA to inspect exterior damage.

In 1999, Foale was a member of space shuttle mission STS-103, during which he conducted an 8-hour spacewalk to replace components of the Hubble Space Telescope.

In 2003, Foale was named commander of International Space Station Expedition 8 with cosmonaut Alexandr Kaleri. His six-month tour of duty on the station ended on April 29, 2004.

He was awarded a CBE in the diplomatic list of the New Year Honours in December 2004.

He is currently Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Operations at NASA HQ, Washington D.C.