Frederick W. Sturckow

Frederick Wilford "Rick" Sturckow is an engineer, retired United States Marine Corps officer, former NASA astronaut, and commercial spacecraft pilot. Sturckow is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions and six Virgin Galactic suborbital space flights, earning him record of being launched into space more than any other human, as of November 2025. He flew as a pilot on STS-88 and STS-105 and as a commander on STS-117 and STS-128. All four missions docked with the International Space Station, making Sturckow one of three American astronauts to visit the station four times. Sturckow later was assigned to the Johnson Space Center as a CAPCOM. He left NASA in 2013 to become a pilot for Virgin Galactic.