Congratulation to Dr Michael Foale CBE (1975) who, on Friday 19 May, will be inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Mike read Natural Sciences at Queens' before staying on to do a PhD in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory.
After his PhD, the British-born astronaut-to-be moved to the US to work in the Space Shuttle Program, working with the orbiter’s navigation system at McDonnell Douglas. He was first selected as an astronaut candidate in June 1987.
A veteran of six missions, Mike logged more than 374 days in space and four spacewalks totalling almost 23 hours, including a spacewalk to perform repairs and upgrades to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. He is also the only American citizen to have served on both the Russian Mir space station and the International Space Station.
Foale retired from NASA in 2013 and now works as a consultant for the aerospace industry and tours around the globe giving STEM talks to schoolchildren.
A film, Icarus, directed by Iain Softley (1976), is being made about Mike's student days and illustrious career.
You can watch the ceremony live.