COLONEL MIKE “HOPPER” HOPKINS

Colonel (R) Mike Hopkins is the Senior Vice President of Operations and Quality at Stratolaunch in Mojave, CA.  Previously he was a Managing Director for Cerberus Capital Management following his retirement on 1 May 2023 from the United States Space Force after a 30 year military career.  His final assignment was the United States Space Force Director of Test and Evaluation, serving as the principle test advisor to Space Force senior leadership and providing oversight of the USSF test enterprise.  Prior to this position, he was assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center Astronaut Office in Houston, Texas performing human spaceflight training, operations and support. 

Mike was born in Lebanon, Missouri, and grew up on a farm outside Richland, Missouri.  He attended high school at School of the Osage in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, graduating in 1987.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1991 and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford University in 1992.  He is married to the former Julie Stutz of Peoria, Illinois.  They have two sons, Ryan and Lucas.  

Hopkins was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force in January 1992. In April 1993, he was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he worked on advanced space system technologies. In 1996, he attended the flight test engineering course at the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Following graduation in 1997, he spent the next five years testing aircraft at Edwards AFB and the Canadian Flight Test Center in Cold Lake, Alberta.  Hopkins next served as an Olmsted Scholar at the Università degli Studi di Parma. From 2005-2009, Hopkins worked in the Pentagon with the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and as a special assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

Hopkins was selected in July 2009 as one of 9 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. On September 25, 2013, Hopkins launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS) where he served as a member of ISS Expeditions 37/38. More recently, the Missouri native served as Commander of the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience, which launched on November 16, 2020 to the ISS for ISS Expeditions 64/65.  This flight was the first post-certification mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft – the second crewed flight for that vehicle.  Notable events during this flight include Hopkins voluntarily transferring from the United States Air Force to the United States Space Force, becoming the first Guardian astronaut.  Additionally, Crew-1 broke the American crewed spacecraft mission duration record set by the final skylab crew in 1974 as well as having the first night splashdown of a U.S. spacecraft since Apollo 8 in 1968.  Between the two flights, Colonel Hopkins has spent 333 days in space and conducted 5 spacewalks totaling more than 32 hours “outside” ISS.

Awards/Honors: Team Captain, 1991 University of Illinois Football Team; Distinguished Graduate, Reserve Officers Training Corps, University of Illinois; Distinguished Graduate and top flight test engineer in United States Air Force Test Pilot School Class 96B; Defense Meritorious Service Medal; Meritorious Service Medal; Aerial Achievement Medal; two Air Force Commendation Medals and four Air Force Achievement Medals.