Hague was deployed in Iraq for five months in 2004, supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, and conducting experimental airborne reconnaissance.
In 2006, Hague started teaching courses in the Department of Astronautics faculty at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado. He has taught courses in introductory astronautics, linear control system analysis and design.
In 2009, Hague received a fellowship for the Air Force Fellows program in Washington, D.C.
Hague was promoted to colonel in 2016.[7] His transfer to the U.S. Space Force was approved in December 2020.[8] In 2019, Hague served as the Space Force's director of Test and Evaluation at the Pentagon.[9]
Although Colonel Michael S. Hopkins became the first Space Force member in space when he transferred from the Air Force to the Space Force while onboard the International Space Station, Hague was selected to be the first guardian to launch into space.[10]
NASA
Hague was selected by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 21 and completed training in July 2015, making him available for future missions.[3]
Hague was the first astronaut of the 2013 NASA astronaut class to be selected for a mission; he was slated to be a flight engineer for Expedition 57/58.
Soyuz MS-10 (aborted)
Hague (top) and Alexey Ovchinin (bottom) wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft on 11 October 2018
On 11 October 2018, Hague and Aleksey Ovchinin boarded Soyuz MS-10, destined for the International Space Station, but the launch was aborted mid-flight due to a booster failure; the crew landed safely after pulling over 6 Gs[11] on a ballistic descent, minutes from launch.[12][6] The Soyuz flight was aborted at an altitude of around 50 kilometers (31 miles) and the spacecraft reached an apogee of 93 km (58 mi) before landing 19 minutes and 41 seconds after launch, according to a preliminary official report.[13] Hague would thus be entitled to Air Force astronaut wings for this aborted flight, as the USAF defines the boundary of space at 50 miles (80 kilometres),[14] but did not quite cross the internationally-accepted Kármán line at 62 miles. As a result, NASA considered this to be Hague's first spaceflight, unlike RSA, and the two agencies therefore count subsequent flights differently.[4] Hague was awarded a special NASA Astronaut Pin made of tin in recognition of his survival of Soyuz MS-10.[15]
Expedition 59/60
Hague launched successfully to the ISS on 14 March 2019, travelling on Soyuz MS-12 with Russian Commander Aleksey Ovchinin and fellow American astronaut Christina Koch. The trio joined Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineers David Saint-Jacques and Anne McClain on Expedition 59.[4] After the departure of Kononenko, Saint-Jacques and McClain in July 2019, Ovchinin, Hague and Koch will transfer over to Expedition 60, with Ovchinin taking command of the station, and would subsequently return to Earth in early October 2019.[16] According to a Russian news site, it was under consideration that Hague would stay on the ISS after the landing of Soyuz MS-12 and instead land with Soyuz MS-15, this mission would happen in order to fly a cosmonaut from the United Arab Emirates' Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, who would launch on Soyuz MS-15 and land on Soyuz MS-12 ten or so days later. If Hague had undertaken the mission then he would have spent over 14 months on the ISS,[citation needed] the only other space mission to last around that long was Valeri Polyakov's Soyuz TM-18/Soyuz TM-20 mission to the Mir space station, which lasted 437d 17h 58m, the longest single stay in space in history. In an interview with Space.com in February 2019, Hague stated that his mission would be lasting 204 days, meaning the prospect of him staying 14 months on the station was off the table.[17]
On 22 March 2019, Hague and Anne McClain performed their first spacewalk to install the adapter plates while Dextre swaps the batteries between spacewalks. The EVA lasted 6 hours and 39 minutes. They also removed debris from the Unity Module in preparation for the arrival of Cygnus NG-11 in April, stowing tools for the repair of the flex hose rotary coupler, and securing tiebacks on the solar array blanket boxes.[18]
Hague performed his second EVA together with Christina Koch. Originally designated to be the first "all-female" EVA, Hague was reassigned to it after space suit issues prevented both women from going on the EVA.[19] EVA lasted 6 hours and 45 minutes.[20]
On 21 August, Hague performed his third EVA, together with Andrew Morgan. EVA lasted 6 hours and 32 minutes, while the astronauts installed a new International Docking Adapter (IDA).[20] During the EVA, Hague wore the Artemis program logo on his suit.[21]
Honors and awards
During his service in the Air Force and Space Force, Hague has received the following awards:[7][22]
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