Acaba, Joseph Michael (1967-…), became the first United States astronaut of Puerto Rican descent. He has flown aboard the space shuttle and lived and worked aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
In 2009, Acaba flew a two-week mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. He participated in two spacewalks during the mission, which delivered solar panels and a truss (support) to the International Space Station. He served aboard the ISS for four months in 2012, helping to receive the first commercial resupply craft to service the station, SpaceX’s Dragon. Acaba again served aboard the station from September 2017 to February 2018, completing another spacewalk.
Acaba was born May 17, 1967, in Inglewood, California , to Puerto Rican parents. The family moved to Anaheim , where Acaba attended high school. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990 and master’s degrees from the University of Arizona in 1992 and Texas Tech University in 2015. He was selected for astronaut training by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2004.
