Portrait of Ken Bowersox Courtesy of NASA

Ken Bowersox is an American astronaut who was born on November 14, 1956 in Virginia. Before he became an astronaut, Bowersox was a pilot for the Air Force. He has flown over 4000 hours in several different aircraft.

Bowersox became an astronaut in 1987. He has made four spaceflights spending over 1200 hours in space.

In 1992, Bowersox flew aboard the first flight of the U.S. Microgravity Lab. This mission of two weeks was the longest in Space Shuttle history. In 1993, Bowersox helped repair the Hubble Space Telescope during mission STS-61.

Bowersox made a second trip on the U.S. Microgravity Lab in 1995. This mission focused on physics and engineering. In 1997, Bowersox once again made repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope on mission STS-82.