Mark Lee

Mark was an 8-year-old second grader in a one-room rural schoolhouse near Viroqua, Wisconsin on May 5, 1961 – the day Alan Shepherd became the first American astronaut to reach space. That was the day Mark Lee decided he was going to be an astronaut.

Lee received an appointment to the Air Force Academy in 1970. Following graduation and commissioning with a degree in civil engineering, Lieutenant Lee attended Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) at Laughlin AFB, Texas. His high class standing led to fighter lead-in training at Holman AFB, New Mexico and finally to upgrade training in the McDonnell Douglas F-4 “Phantom” at Luke AFB, Arizona. While at Luke Lee earned the Barry Goldwater Award as “Top Gun”.

After fighter training, Lee was assigned to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. While stationed there, he applied to graduate school at MIT and earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1980. His next assignment was to Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts as operational support manager in the AWACS program. He was later sent to Hill AFB, Utah, flying the General Dynamics F-16 “Fighting Falcon”.

In early 1984 Mark applied to NASA and was one of 17 selected out of 5,000 applicants. His first space flight during May 1989 was as Mission Specialist on STS-30. He flew his second mission aboard Endeavor on STS-47 in 1992, serving as Payload Commander. In 1994, Mark flew his third space mission STS-64 as Mission Specialist and completed the flight test sequence for the SAFER (Simplified Air for EVA Rescue) jetpack. During his fourth space and final mission, STS-82, he served as Payload Commander and performed three spacewalks (EVAs) to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

After retiring from NASA and the Air Force in 2001 Mark put his engineering background to work at Orbital Technologies, and later Affiliated Engineers, where he headed their Houston office. He retired in 2022.

Mark remains active in environmental awareness and inspiring youth. He estimates that he has spoken to well over 500,000 youth. In 1980, Mark purchased farmland near his childhood home and began planting trees. Since then, he has planted over 140,000 trees.