 rex joseph walheim (born october 10, 1962) is a united states air force officer and a nasa astronaut. he has flown three space shuttle missions, sts-110, sts-122, and sts-135. rex has logged over 566 hours in space, including 36 hours and 23 minutes of spacewalk (eva) time. he was assigned as mission specialist and flight engineer on sts-135, the final space shuttle mission. ==biography== walheim was born in redwood city, california, but considers san carlos, california, his hometown. ===education=== walheim graduated from san carlos high school in 1980 and received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the university of california, berkeley in 1984. he then received a master of science degree in industrial engineering from the university of houston in 1989. ===military career=== walheim was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the air force in may 1984. in april 1985 he was assigned to cavalier air force station in cavalier, north dakota, where he worked as a missile warning operations crew commander. in october 1986, he was reassigned to the johnson space center, houston, texas, where he worked as a mechanical systems flight controller and was the lead operations engineer for the space shuttle landing gear, brakes, and emergency runway barrier. walheim was transferred to headquarters air force space command in colorado springs, colorado, in august 1989, where he was manager of a program upgrading missile warning radars. he was selected for usaf test pilot school in 1991, and attended the course at edwards afb in california in 1992. following graduation, he was assigned to the f-16 combined test force at edwards where he was a project manager, and then commander of the avionics and armament flight. in january 1996, walheim became an instructor at usaf test pilot school, where he served until he began astronaut training. [[file:astronaut rex walheim at 2009 presidential inauguration parade.jpg|thumb|left|walheim represented space exploration in an astronaut suit as he passed the obama and biden families in the revi
1962_births American_astronauts Aquanauts Living_people NASA_civilian_astronauts People_from_San_Carlos,_California Recipients_of_the_Aerial_Achievement_Medal U.S._Air_Force_Test_Pilot_School_alumni United_States_Air_Force_astronauts United_States_Air_Force_officers University_of_Houston_alumni