Portrait of Andrew Allen Courtesy of NASA

Andrew Allen is an American astronaut who was born on August 4, 1955 in Pennsylvania. Before he became an astronauts, Allen was a Navy and Marines pilot. He has flown over 4500 hours on more than 30 different aircraft.

Allen became an astronaut for NASA in 1988. He has flown on three space flights and has logged over 900 hours in space.

In 1992, Allen flew aboard the space shuttle Atlantis on an 8-day mission. During this mission, a space platform was deployed, and the Tethered Satellite System was demonstrated. The tethered satellite system is like a big ball attached to a string. The ball collects power from energetic solar particles and transmits that power down the string and into the space shuttle.

In 1994, Allen spent 14 days in space during the STS-62 mission. This mission studied several Earth-related engineering applications. In 1996, Allen was part of the crew that retested the Tether Satellite Satellite during a 15-day mission.