![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/jsc2024e052329.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>Hague was born and raised in Kansas but has crisscrossed the country for college and career. He earned degrees from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and he attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Hague\u2019s military career has taken him to New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and included a five-month deployment to Iraq. Hague transferred from the Air Force to the U.S. Space Force in 2020 after serving as the Space Force\u2019s director of test and evaluation at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
No stranger to new places, Hague vividly recalls making his first trip to Johnson when he was interviewing to join NASA\u2019s astronaut corps. \u201cI had no idea what to expect, and it was a bit overwhelming. I knew everyone was watching me and judging me,\u201d he said. \u201cLuckily, even though I wasn\u2019t selected then, I got another chance a few years later. It\u2019s a pretty magical place.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Hague completed his astronaut training in July 2015 as part of NASA\u2019s 21st astronaut class<\/a>. He was the first astronaut from that group to be assigned to a mission, which launched in October 2018 but was aborted shortly after takeoff. His next spaceflight occurred in 2019, when he joined three of his classmates \u2013 NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Christina Koch, and Andrew Morgan \u2013 aboard the International Space Station for Expeditions 59 and 60.<\/p>\n Hague has made many memories at Johnson, but one that stands out is his experience working onsite amid the 2013 government shutdown. \u201cI\u2019m active-duty military so I still came to work,\u201d he explained. \u201cI remember being onsite and the center being completely empty. Being able to ride around an empty campus on the free-range bikes \u2013 it was peaceful and surreal.\u201d It was also a preview of what many Johnson employees experienced during the pandemic and how NASA maintains round-the-clock support for spaceflight operations regardless of extenuating circumstances.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hague now looks ahead to another journey to low Earth orbit. NASA and SpaceX officials currently plan to launch the Crew-9 mission no earlier than Wednesday, Sept. 25. The crew will lift off from Launch Complex 40 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hague and Gorbonov will become members of the Expedition 72 crew aboard the station. They will join NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, and Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, and will spend about six months conducting scientific research in microgravity and completing a range of operational activities before returning home.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n More details about the mission and crew can be found by following the Crew-9 blog<\/a>,\u00a0@commercial_crew<\/a>\u00a0on X, or\u00a0commercial crew<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook. You can also follow @astrohague<\/a> on X and Instagram.<\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a> As the hub of human spaceflight, NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston holds a variety of unique responsibilities and privileges. Those include being the home of NASA\u2019s astronaut corps. One of those astronauts \u2013 Nick Hague \u2013 is now preparing to launch to the International Space Station along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on the [\u2026] Continue reading <\/a><\/figure><\/a><\/figure>
\nLinda E. Grimm <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"