page_title: Michael Fincke
section_title: Expedition 18
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Fincke / NASA career / Expedition 18
caption_attribution_description: English: Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke, a Pittsburgh native, showed his true colors as he offered encouragement for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
context_page_description: Edward Michael "Mike"/"Spanky" Fincke is an American astronaut who formerly held the American record for the most time in space. His record was broken by Scott Kelly on October 16, 2015. In January, 2019 Fincke was selected to fly on the first crewed flight of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, making Fincke the first astronaut since John Young to fly on 3 different launch vehicles into orbit.
  Mike Fincke was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but considers its suburb Emsworth to be his hometown. He is a retired United States Air Force officer and an active NASA astronaut. So far he served two tours aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer and Commander. He flew on one Space Shuttle mission, STS-134 as a Mission Specialist. Fincke is conversant in Japanese and Russian. He is married to Renita Saikia, and together they have three children; son Chandra and daughters Tarali and Surya.
  Fincke logged just under 382 days in space, placing him second among American astronauts for the most time in space, and 20th overall. He completed nine spacewalks in Russian Orlan spacesuits and American EMUs.
context_section_description: Fincke was commander of Expedition 18. He arrived at the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 on October 14, 2008 with Cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and space flight participant Richard Garriott. While Richard Garriott was aboard, Fincke participated during his personal time (along with Yury Lonchakov, Gregory Chamitoff and Richard Garriott) in filming and starring in the first science-fiction movie made in space, Apogee of Fear. On April 8, 2009 Fincke, Lonchakov and space tourist Charles Simonyi returned to Earth aboard the TMA-13.
  Replacing Fincke as commander of the space station was Gennady Padalka, whom Fincke served with on Expedition 9.
caption: Fincke holds a Terrible Towel to support the Pittsburgh Steelers[3]
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