Date of Birth: Nov. 17, 1944
                    
                        Age: 80
                    
                    
                
John-David Francis Bartoe (born November 17, 1944 in Abington, Pennsylvania) is an American astrophysicist. He is the Research Manager for the International Space Station (ISS) at NASA's Johnson Space Center. He provides oversight for the Program Manager concerning the research capability, research hardware, and research plans of the ISS. As a civilian employee of the US Navy, he flew aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-51-F as a Payload Specialist.
The Navy was competed with the Army to put the first American satellite into orbit. Their first two Vanguard missions failed, with the second being a highly publicized failure, as it exploded on the launchpad. They went on to put 3 satellites into orbit but did not beat the Army to be the first. Their work in space continues today largely on military satellites.
Classified Earth observation satellite officially reported as for "national resources/hydrology/meteorology surveying & disaster management" purposes.
Communications Satellite for the Indian Navy, replacing GSAT-7 for secure real-time links between Indian warships, submarines, aircraft, and shore-ba…
Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.
A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Tenth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.