Connecticut native Rick Mastracchio has retired from NASA and taken up a job with a Virginia contractor that provides cargo to the International Space Station, where he spent more than six months during his final space mission in 2013 and 2014.
Mastracchio, 57, a Waterbury native and UConn alum, spent his final day at NASA last week, and has taken a job with Orbital ATK as senior director of operations for the the company’s Commercial Resupply Services program.
“With his experience as an astronaut and his time spent on the International Space Station, Rick brings a unique understanding of human space flight, making him an invaluable resource for our human space flight endeavors,” Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager of Orbital ATK’s Advanced Programs Division, said in a statement this week.
During his time aboard the ISS, Mastracchio remotely delivered a commencement address to UConn School of Engineering’s class of 2014. He returned to Earth several weeks later.
Mastracchio, who joined NASA in 1990 and was accepted into its astronaut program in 1996, flew on three shuttle flights during his career, during which he spent a total of 228 days in space.
