Benjamin Alvin Drew Jr. (born November 5, 1962) is a United States Air Force officer and a former NASAastronaut. He has been on two spaceflights; the first was the Space Shuttle mission STS-118 to the International Space Station, in August 2007.[2] Drew's second spaceflight took place in March 2011 on STS-133, another mission to the International Space Station. STS-133 was Space Shuttle Discovery's final mission. Drew took part in two spacewalks while docked to the station. Drew was the final African-American to fly on board a Space Shuttle, as the final two Space Shuttle missions, STS-134 and STS-135, had no African-American crew members.
Drew was selected to be an astronaut in NASA's Astronaut Group 18 in July 2000. Following his rookie spaceflight, Drew spent almost a year at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center in Star City, Russia, overseeing NASA's training operations there as director of operations.
On February 28, 2011, Drew became the 200th person to walk in space, when he conducted the first spacewalk of the STS-133 mission with fellow astronaut Steve Bowen.[3]
Early life
Drew was born in 1962 in Washington, D.C., and spent his early years in Lanham, Maryland. He moved to Brookland, Washington, D.C., when he was four years old.[4] Drew recalls having a desire to be a pilot from as early as four years old.[4] In October 1968, at the age of five, Drew saw the Apollo 7 launch on television, and thereafter reputedly wished to become an astronaut.[4]
Drew is a command pilot with over 3,000 hours flying time, flown in over 30 types of aircraft. He retired from the air force in September 2010, after more than 25 years of service.[5]
NASA career
Selected as a mission specialist by NASA in July 2000, Drew reported for training in August 2000. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Station Operations Branch. He served in technical assignments until he took a sabbatical to the U.S. Air Force's Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, attending a master's degree program at their Air War College.[5]
After his first successful spaceflight, STS-118, he worked as CAPCOM officer in Mission Control for the Mission of STS-123. Drew then spent almost a year in Russia as the director of operations overseeing the US operations at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center in Star City.[5] On April 21, 2009, he delivered a lecture “Space Shuttle Flight-118: A Mission to Build the International Space Station” at the ELE public forum in Moscow.[6]
Drew served as a mission specialist on STS-133, the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. This mission launched on February 24, 2011, and docked with the space station two days later. Landing occurred on March 9. Drew's role on this crew was that of a mission specialist, and he conducted two spacewalks. On February 28, Drew became the 200th person to walk in space.[8]
In October 2020, Drew co-founded the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, a branch of the Brooke Owens Fellowship intended to provide resources for African-American undergraduate students pursuing careers in aerospace.[9]
