Astronaut Steve “Oz” Oswald

Biography

Steve “Oz” Oswald (Rear Admiral, USN, Ret.) is a former NASA astronaut, military & civilian test pilot and corporate executive.

Oswald is a 1973 graduate of the US Naval Academy, where he studied aerospace engineering and played varsity football. Following graduation and flight school, he flew the A-7 aboard the USS Midway from 1975-1977. He is a 1978 graduate of the Navy Test Pilot School and conducted early flight test on the F/A-18 aircraft. He also served as a flight instructor in the Navy’s first F/A-18 squadron and as a catapult officer aboard the USS Coral Sea. He has logged 7,000+ flight hours in more than 40 aircraft.

Oswald’s first spaceflight was as the Pilot of STS-42, aboard Discovery in 1992. This flight was the first International Microgravity Laboratory mission and carried an international crew of seven.

He then went on to Pilot Discovery again for STS-56, the second Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-2), which included the deployment and recovery of the Spartan research spacecraft.

Oswald then commanded STS-67, the second flight of the Astro observatory (Astro II), on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. This flight established the space shuttle mission duration record at 17 days.

After retiring from NASA, Rear Admiral Oswald returned to active duty as Deputy Commander of the newly established JTF, Computer Network Operations, which directed computer network defense operations for all of the DoD and coordinated other operations with the Intelligence Community. RADM Oswald had offices in Arlington, VA and at the National Security Agency. Oswald’s other Navy assignments included command tours at the Naval Space Command and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. He also served as Director, Naval Space Reserve Program and had several flag officer assignments on the Navy Staff in the Pentagon.

In 2001, Oswald became the Vice President and Program Manager for the Space Shuttle with the Boeing Company in Houston, TX. In 2008, he relocated to Northern VA to take over a newly established $1+B division serving 50+ government and commercial customers at over 20 locations nationwide. This “portfolio division” operated over 350 contracts providing products and services to a broad array of customers with critical national security missions, including classified operations. Oswald retired form Boeing in 2012.