Jack Hathaway

Jack Hathaway was born in 1982 in South Windsor, Connecticut, and came to the astronaut corps by way of the U.S. Navy, following the classic path of the fighter and test pilot. He attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, earning a bachelor's degree in physics and history in 2004, and later pursued graduate studies in aerospace dynamics, earning a Master of Science from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, along with a master's in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. Hathaway became a distinguished naval aviator, flying and deploying with strike-fighter squadrons VFA-14 aboard the carrier USS Nimitz and VFA-136 aboard the USS Harry S. Truman. He graduated from the British Empire Test Pilots' School at Boscombe Down, joining the small fraternity of aviators qualified to evaluate aircraft at the edge of their performance. By the time NASA came calling, he had accumulated more than 2,500 flight hours in some 30 types of aircraft, logged over 500 carrier-arrested landings, and flown 39 combat missions. He also supported the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon before being selected by NASA to join the 2021 astronaut candidate class, reporting for training in January 2022 and graduating as a flight-eligible astronaut in March 2024.

Hathaway's first spaceflight came with NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 mission, which launched on 13 February 2026 aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Space Coast. He served as the mission's pilot, the second-in-command role responsible for monitoring the Dragon's automated systems during launch, rendezvous, docking, and eventual return. He flew alongside a notably international crew: NASA astronaut and commander Jessica Meir, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. After docking with the International Space Station, Hathaway joined the long-duration Expedition 74 crew for a planned stay of roughly six months, during which the crew maintained the orbiting laboratory and carried out the ongoing program of microgravity science, technology demonstrations, and station upkeep that defines modern ISS expeditions.

As an active NASA astronaut early in his spaceflight career, Hathaway represents the current generation of aviator-astronauts drawn from the ranks of naval test pilots, a lineage that stretches back to the earliest days of American human spaceflight. His combination of frontline combat experience, formal test-pilot training, and a physics education positions him for future assignments as NASA looks toward continued station operations and, potentially, deep-space missions under the Artemis program. Having earned his astronaut wings on the Crew-12 flight, he now counts among the relatively small number of people who have piloted an American crewed spacecraft to orbit, and his story reflects how commercial vehicles such as SpaceX's Crew Dragon have become the primary means by which U.S. astronauts reach the space station.