With a smile on his face as he looks at the planets beneath him, EC alumnus Michael Fincke lives his dream of soaring to the stars.
Fincke is an astronaut and has been working for NASA for the past 13 years. He has two bachelor’s degrees from MIT, two master’s degrees, one from Stanford University and the other from the University of Houston, Clear Lake, but his collegiate learning began at EC where he earned his associate degree.
“I wasn’t done learning. I wanted to supplement my learning. EC had some really neat classes like Japanese language, Geology and things like that, they had great teachers and great students,” Fincke said.
By attending EC and taking courses like Japanese, Fincke was prepared to work with international astronauts at NASA.
“NASA in the late ’90s was looking to hire astronauts to fly aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Some of our international crews are Japanese and Russian. At EC, I studied Japanese, which was very helpful for my flight on the ISS,” Fincke said.
As a young child, Fincke was inspired to become an astronaut by watching television and witnessing astronauts walking on the moon.
“Ever since I was two years old I knew I wanted to be an astronaut so I kept working toward it,” Fincke said.
Fincke applied to NASA in 1996 and said that the education he got here helped him a lot throughout the process.
Fincke got hired by NASA later that year and was free to pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut and going to space.
“I enjoy flying in space, and I enjoy being a part of the space program. I knew flying in space would be something that I would like to do and that was pretty much my childhood dream,” Fincke said.
After getting hired by NASA, Fincke had to go through extensive training in order to board every space mission and continues to go through training.
Fincke said the training he had to do was basic astronaut training that took three years, which includes training all over the world in Europe, Japan, Russia and Canada.
After the astronauts get finished with basic training, they have to become eligible for a space mission. After they get assigned to a space mission, then they have to train for the space mission.
The other type of training is space shuttle training, which is one year of training.
“There’s a lot of training that we still have to do and a lot of studying, so there’s always more to learn,” Fincke said.
Fincke said his first experience in space was a good one for him because he felt accomplished in reaching his personal goals and witnessing space in person.
Fincke has since been to the ISS twice, staying there for six months each time.
Fincke had finally gotten what he wished for after many years of hard work.
“There were a couple of different things going through my mind. There was the rocket launch, and when I kept looking down at the planet, I couldn’t stop smiling because I achieved my goal. My dream came true. For a whole year of my life I had a chance to just fly,” Fincke said.