Stephen Bowen

NASA astronaut, retired U.S. Navy Captain

Stephen G. Bowen is a veteran NASA astronaut, retired U.S. Navy Captain, and the first submarine officer ever selected by NASA as an astronaut. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in ocean engineering from the joint MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution program, Bowen built his early career as a naval submariner before joining NASA in 2000.

He has flown four space missions and logged more than 227 days in space, serving on three Space Shuttle missions—STS-126, STS-132, and STS-133—and most recently as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station in 2023. During his missions, he helped deliver critical station hardware, expand crew living capacity aboard the ISS, and supported long-duration scientific operations as part of Expedition 69.

Across his career, Bowen has conducted 10 spacewalks and is widely respected for his leadership, operational excellence, and calm precision under pressure—qualities forged both beneath the ocean and beyond Earth’s atmosphere. His journey from submarines to spaceflight reflects a career defined by technical mastery, discipline, and service at the highest level of exploration.