NASA has chosen an Air Force colonel for a 2017 mission to the International Space Station. Col. Jack Fischer will be part of Expedition 52, which begins in May 2017, according to a news release. The crews of Expedition 51 and 52 will continue research to help the NASA mission to Mars, and Fischer is expected to be at the station for the first test flights of the Boeing CST-100 crew capsule and SpaceX’s manned Crew Dragon spacecraft. Fischer, of Louisville, Colo., graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science in astronautical engineering, then earned a Master of Science in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998, according to NASA. Fischer was trained as an F-15E pilot and served two combat deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Southern Watch before becoming a test pilot. He has flown more than 50 types of aircraft, including the F-22. He was selected in July 2009 as a member of the 20th NASA astronaut class and finished astronaut candidate training in July 2011.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
