Michael Foale

Dr. Colin Michael “Mike” Foale, Ph.D., CBE, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Foale Aerospace, a firm focused on advanced aerospace systems and technology development. He is a British‑American astrophysicist and former NASA astronaut with a distinguished 26‑year career in human spaceflight.

Dr. Foale flew on six space missions, including five Space Shuttle flights and one Russian Soyuz mission, accumulating more than 374 days in space — one of the highest cumulative spaceflight records for any astronaut. He lived and worked aboard both the Russian Mir space station and the International Space Station (ISS), serving as Flight Engineer on Mir and as Commander of Expedition 8 on the ISS. Over his career he conducted multiple spacewalks in both U.S. and Russian spacesuits, contributed to servicing missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and played key roles in complex international missions.

Dr. Foale earned his Ph.D. in laboratory astrophysics from Queens’ College, Cambridge University in 1982. After retiring from NASA in 2013, he founded Foale Aerospace to continue advancing aerospace innovation and technical solutions for flight systems and embedded technology.

In 2017, Dr. Foale was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame alongside fellow astronaut Ellen Ochoa in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to space exploration.