Dr. Hoffman is a professor in MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. He received a BA in Astronomy (summa cum laude) from Amherst College (1966); a PhD in Astrophysics from Harvard University (1971); and an MSc in Materials Science from Rice University (1988).
As a NASA astronaut (1978-1997) Dr. Hoffman made five space flights, becoming the first astronaut to log 1000 hours of flight time aboard the Space Shuttle. He has performed four spacewalks, including the first unplanned, contingency spacewalk in NASA’s history (STS 51D; April, 1985) and the initial rescue mission that repaired the optics of the Hubble Space Telescope (STS 61; December, 1993).
His primary research interests are in improving the technology of space suits and designing innovative space systems for human and robotic space exploration. He is Deputy Principal Investigator of the MOXIE experiment on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which will for the first time produce oxygen from extraterrestrial material, a critical step in the future of human space exploration.
Dr. Hoffman is director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium. In 2007, Dr. Hoffman was elected to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
