Astronaut Rex Walheim 

The Last Space Shuttle Mission

Rex Walheim was born in Redwood City, California, but considers San Carlos California his hometown. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he got his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1984. He received his Master’s of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Houston in 1989.

Walheim was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force in May 1984. He worked at various jobs in Air Force Space Command until he attended the Flight Test Engineer course at USAF Test Pilot School in 1992 at Edwards AFB, California.  Following his graduation, he was assigned to the F-16 Combined Test Force at Edwards, where he was a project manager and then Commander of the Avionics and Armament Flight. In January 1996, Walheim became an instructor at the Air Force Test Pilot School, where he served until he was selected for astronaut training.

Walheim commenced astronaut training at the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. After completing 2 years of training and evaluation, he qualified for flight assignment as a Mission Specialist. Walheim was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations branch, where he helped develop the initial procedures and displays used on the International Space Station. He served as CAPCOM in the Mission Control Center and was also the chief of the spacewalking branch. A veteran of three space flights, he has logged over 36 days in space, including more than 36 hours in five spacewalks.

Walheim’s first space flight was on STS-110 in 2002, which brought up the S0 truss segment to the International Space Station. In 2008, he was the lead spacewalker on STS-122 which brought up the Columbus European Laboratory Module. Walheim was also a Mission Specialist on the crew of STS-135 in 2011, a station cargo delivery mission, which was the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program. Subsequent to his flights, Walheim served as Chief of the Exploration branch of the Astronaut Office, where he worked as the astronaut representative to the Orion Program. In 2015, he became the Assistant Director for Operations for the Flight Operations Directorate. He then served as the Deputy Director of Safety and Mission Assurance at the Johnson Space Center. Rex Walheim retired from NASA in July 2020.

After retiring from NASA, Walheim joined Axiom Space where he was the Safety and Mission Assurance Director, and then later the Chief Safety Officer. In 2024, he joined Blue Origin, where he currently works as the Crew Integration Advisor.