Virts began his career as an Air Force officer and pilot he was stationed in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, South Korea, Germany, California, and Texas. He has logged over 5,300 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft including combat time in the F-16 “Viper.” He has also served in multiple flying commands, Space Command, and Cyber Command.

In 2010 he made his first spaceflight as pilot of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-130 ; delivering the now-famous Cupola, which provides astronauts with a 360° view of our planet and the universe. Virts attended Harvard Business School in the fall of 2011 and completed the General Management Programme, having been selected as NASA’s only candidate for that programme.

In 2014 Terry Virts launched onboard Soyuz TMA-15M from Baikonur, Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. In March of the following year, Virts assumed command of the ISS as Commander of Expedition 43. He spent 200 days in space on this Expedition 42/43 flight, which is the fourth longest continuous NASA space mission. He is also one of only 4 astronauts ever to have piloted a space shuttle, flown on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, performed space walks and commanded the ISS.

Virts has taken more photos from space than any other astronaut. His National Geographic book View From Above features the best of Terry’s photographs along with his stories from space, reproducing the experiences of spaceflight.

Terry Virts is also a cinematographer, SCUBA diver and drone pilot. He also speaks Russian and French.