Ground control to Dr. Bob. Robert Louis ‘Bob’ Behnken is a NASA astronaut, and one of the two men selected to fly the first ever commercial manned spaceflight. Born in St. Ann, Missouri, Bob attended the Washington University at St. Louis, where he attained two Bachelor degrees in Science: one in Mechanical Engineering, and one in Physics. He attended Caltech for graduate school, earning his Masters in Mechanical Engineering in 1993 and a doctorate degree four years later. In between undergrad and graduate school, he was an Air Force ROTC student, and was assigned to the Air Force active duty after grad school. Bob became a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force, testing the F-22 jet, as well as the F-15 and F-16. In 2000, on his first attempt, he was selected by NASA for their astronaut program. In 2008, he made his first trip into space. His second trip into the great beyond came two years later. During both excursions, he completed three spacewalks. In 2020, Bob was selected as one of two NASA astronauts to fly SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule, powered by the Falcon 9 rocket, to the International Space Station.
