Portrait of John Grunsfeld Courtesy of NASA

John Grunsfeld is an American astronaut who was born on October 10, 1958, in Illinois. Before he became an astronaut, Grunsfeld did research in physics.

Grunsfeld became an astronaut in 1992. He has spent over 644 hours in space on two spaceflights.

Grunsfeld made his first spaceflight aboard STS-67 in 1995. The crew made observations of deep space objects. In 1997, Grunsfeld flew aboard STS-81. The shuttle docked with Russia's Mir Space Station.