Portrait of John Blaha Courtesy of NASA

John Blaha is an American astronaut who was born on August 26, 1942 in Texas. Before he became an astronaut, Blaha was an Air Force pilot. He has flown over 5500 hours in 33 different types of aircraft.

Blaha became an astronaut in 1980. He has spent over 3864 hours in space on 5 space missions.

In 1989, Blaha piloted shuttle Discovery. The crew performed several scientific experiments. Also in 1989, Blaha piloted the STS-33 Department of Defense mission. In 1991, Blaha flew aboard shuttle Atlantis. This mission consisted of several life science experiments. In 1993, Blaha did more experiments aboard shuttle Columbia.

For four months, Blaha lived aboard the Russian Mir Space Station. He returned to Earth aboard STS-81 in January 1997.