Jim Wetherbee

James Donald "Wxb" Wetherbee (born November 27, 1952) is a retired American naval officer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six Space Shuttle missions and is the only American to have commanded five spaceflight missions.

Wetherbee was raised in Huntington Station, New York. He earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame before receiving his commission in the United States Navy. A test pilot, Wetherbee worked extensively on the F/A-18 aircraft before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1984. He piloted mission STS-32 in 1990 and commanded missions STS-52 (1992), STS-63 (1995), STS-86 (1997), STS-102 (2001), and STS-113 (2002). The final three missions were dockings with Mir and the International Space Station; STS-113 was the last Space Shuttle mission before the Columbia disaster.

Wetherbee retired from NASA in January 2005 and currently works for BP.

Wetherbee is married and has two children.

Special honors
In 2009, Wetherbee was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Records

 * Only American to have commanded five missions in space.
 * Has landed the Space Shuttle more times than anyone (five).
 * At 6'4" (1.93 m), Jim Wetherbee is the tallest person to fly in space