Ronald J. Garan Jr.

Ronald Garan
Born	Ronald John Garan Jr. (1961-10-30) October 30, 1961 (age 62) Yonkers, New York, U.S.
Education	State University of New York, Oneonta (BS) Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (MS) University of Florida (MS)
Space career
NASA astronaut
Rank	Colonel, USAF
Time in space	177d 23h 54m
Selection	NASA Group 18 (2000)
Total EVAs	4
Total EVA time	27h 3m
Missions	STS-124 Soyuz TMA-21 (Expedition 27/28)
Mission insignia

Ronald John Garan Jr. (born October 30, 1961)^[1][2] is a retired NASA astronaut. After graduating from State University of New York College at Oneonta in 1982, he joined the Air Force, becoming a Second Lieutenant in 1984. He became an F-16 pilot, and flew combat missions in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Before becoming an astronaut he was the Operations Officer of the 40th Flight Test Squadron (FTS). He first flew in space as a mission specialist on the May 2008 STS-124 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).^[1] He returned to ISS on April 4, 2011, for a six-month stay as a member of Expedition 27.^[1][2] Garan is a highly decorated former NASA astronaut who flew on the US Space Shuttle, Russian Soyuz, and International Space Station. In total he spent 178 days in space and more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits of Earth, 27 hours and 3 minutes of EVA in four spacewalks, and 18 days on the bottom of the ocean during the NEEMO-9 undersea mission.