Meet NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission astronauts: Shane Kimbrough

A decorated Army aviator and former space shuttle astronaut will serve as commander of NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission flying to the International Space Station.

Fifty-three-year-old Shane Kimbrough will take command of Crew Dragon for his third trip to space.

Kimbrough was commissioned into the Army as an aviator after studying engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Over the course of his military career, he served in Operation Desert Storm, led Apache attack helicopter teams, and later became a professor at West Point.

Though he joined NASA in 2000, it wasn’t until four years later that Kimbrough was selected as an astronaut candidate. His first trip to orbit was STS-126, a 2008 shuttle Endeavour mission tasked with ISS assembly. Over the course of 16 days, he logged nearly 13 hours in spacewalks.

Kimbrough built upon those 16 days in 2016 with a second launch, this time to a completed ISS ready for his arrival. He commanded the ISS for nearly six months and performed four more spacewalks, upping his elapsed time “outside” to 39 hours.

Kimbrough’s official NASA biography notes that he enjoys time with his wife and three children, baseball, golf, weightlifting, and running.