The Schmidt Program and Yale ROTC host NASA Astronaut Col. Michael Fincke as part of the Outer Space Series.

Col. Fincke was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1996 and is the veteran of four spaceflights: Expedition 9 in 2004, Expedition 18 in 2009, and STS-134 in 2011. He flew to the space station for the fourth time on August 1, 2025, with the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission where he served as a pilot. While aboard the space station, Fincke served as an Expedition 73/74 flight engineer and commander. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission safely splashed down on January 15, 2026 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, concluding a more than five-month mission aboard the International Space Station.

Col. Fincke has logged 549 days in space, with nine spacewalks totaling 48 hours and 37 minutes of spacewalking time. He is unique in that six of those spacewalks were in the Russian Orlan spacesuit. Fincke is certified as a Soyuz co-pilot/flight engineer, a member of the Space Shuttle flight deck crew, and pilot for both the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.