TIMOTHY J. (TJ) CREAMER (COLONEL, U.S. ARMY, RET.) 

NASA ASTRONAUT

 Follow @Astro_TJ on Twitter

PERSONAL DATA: Born November 15, 1959, in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, but considers 

Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to be his home town. His interests include tennis, running, biking, 

reading, scuba diving, German language, Russian language and Information Technologies (IT). 

Both his mother, Mary E. Creamer, and his father, Edmund J. Creamer, Jr., are deceased.

EDUCATION: Bishop McNamara High School, Forestville, Maryland, 1978; Bachelor of 

Science, Chemistry, Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland, 1982; Master of Science, Physics, 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1992.

ORGANIZATIONS: Alpha Sigma Nu; Phi Kappa Phi; Sigma Pi Sigma; Army Aviation 

Association of America; Association of the United States Army and the British-American 

Project.

SPECIAL HONORS: Defense Superior Service Medal; Legion of Merit; Meritorious Service Medal (2nd Oak Leaf Cluster); 

Army Achievement Medal (1st Oak Leaf Cluster); Air Force Space and Missile Badge; National Defense Service Medal; 

Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Army Aviation School, Master Army Aviator, Senior Parachutist, and Jump Master. He is 

also a recipient of the Russian Federation of Astronautics Yuri Gagarin medal, and the Russian Medal of Merit for Space 

Exploration. Additionally, he has been awarded the Silver Snoopy, NASA’s Space Flight Medal, NASA’s Outstanding Leadership 

Medal, and NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal.

EXPERIENCE: After Creamer graduated from Loyola College in May 1982, he was commissioned through the Reserve Officers' 

Training Corps (ROTC) program as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He entered the U.S. Army Aviation School in December 

1982, and was designated as an army aviator in August 1983, graduating as the Distinguished Graduate from his class. He was 

subsequently assigned to the 1st Armored Division as a section leader, platoon leader, flight operations officer and as a personnel 

staff officer for the 501st Attack Helicopter Battalion. In 1987, he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division as a commander 

of an air cavalry troop in the 17th Cavalry and later as the personnel officer of the 82nd Aviation Brigade. Following this 

assignment, he completed a Master of Science degree in physics at MIT in 1992 and was then assigned to the Department of 

Physics at the U.S. Military Academy as an assistant professor. Other military schools include Army Parachutist Course, Army 

Jumpmaster Course, the Combined Arms Services Staff School, and the Command and General Staff College. Prior to his 

astronaut selection in 1998, he had been working as a space operations officer with the Army Space Command stationed in 

Houston, Texas. He is now retired from the Army, but is still working with NASA.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Creamer was assigned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in July 1995 as a space shuttle vehicle 

integration test engineer. His duties primarily involved serving as engineering liaison for launch and landing operations of the 

space shuttle. He was actively involved in the integrated tests of the systems for each orbiter in preparation for their ?the next 

flight and directly supported eight shuttle missions as a vehicle integration test team lead. Additionally, he focused his efforts in 

coordinating the Information Technologies for the Astronaut Office to aid personnel in their electronic communications, both at 

Johnson Space Center and during their travels to other centers.

Selected by NASA as an astronaut in June 1998, Creamer reported for astronaut candidate training in August 1998. Having 

completed the initial two years of intensive space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) training, he was assigned technical 

duties in the Space Station branch of the Astronaut Office, where his primary focus involved the command and control computers 

on the space station, as well as the office automation support computers and the operational Local Area Network encompassing 

all International Partners and modules. 

Beginning in November 2000, Creamer became the crew support astronaut for the Expedition 3 crew, which was on orbit from 

August 2001 through December 2001. He was the primary contact for all the crew needs, coordination, planning and interactions 

and was the primary representative of the crew while they were on orbit.

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

October 2019

Biographical Data

 Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

 Houston, Texas 77058

Click photo for downloadable high-res version
Starting in March 2002, Creamer headed the Hardware Integration section of the Space Station branch, where he was responsible 

for ensuring that all hardware configurations were properly integrated and that all operational aspects of the future space station

hardware were accounted. In October 2004, he was assigned to be the Astronaut Office representative and coordinator for all things 

relating to on-orbit IT.

Creamer was next assigned to the Robotics branch, dealing with International Partners on all computer aspects of robotics 

operations as well as all command and control software and user interfaces. Additionally, he was the real-time support lead for 

Expedition 12 for all things involving robotics operations on the space station. He also served as a backup Expedition 19 crew

member.

After Expeditions 22 and 23, Creamer returned his focus to on orbit IT, including networking, crew support platforms and targeting 

IT support for missions beyond low-Earth orbit, including Mars missions.

Creamer also served from September 2011- May 2015 as a certified payload operations director (POD) in Huntsville, Alabama, 

helping to coordinate real-time operations of all space station-based science events, making him the first flown astronaut to do so. 

Subsequent to his POD assignment, Creamer was the crew office representative for the landing and recovery effort for the Orion 

capsule, working with the operational teams responsible for the safe and efficient sea recovery of both the returning crews as well 

as the Orion capsule.

In September 2015, Creamer was selected as a NASA Flight Director, the first astronaut to accomplish this transition. As is 

traditional, upon certification, each Flight Director chooses a symbol/color to represent his/her flight control team. Creamer’s 

team name is known as “Saber Flight”, which harkens back to the cavalry expanding the frontier, and protecting those who explore.

SPACEFLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Expedition 22/23 (December 21, 2009 through June 2, 2010). Creamer launched aboard the 

Soyuz TMA-17 crew capsule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Two days later, he docked with the International 

Space Station and joined the Expedition 22 crew. For the next 161 days, Creamer lived and worked aboard the space station as a 

flight engineer and NASA science officer. Creamer also has the distinction of connecting the onboard network to the Internet, via 

Twitter, by sending the first live tweet from orbit. The Expedition 23 crew returned to a safe landing in central Kazakhstan on June 

2, 2010. In completing this long duration mission, Creamer logged a total of 163 days in space.