A veteran of long-duration station work is leaving NASA
NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan has retired from the agency after 12 years, closing a chapter that included a 272-day mission aboard the International Space Station and a record-setting series of spacewalks. Morgan, a U.S. Army brigadier general, is leaving NASA to continue his military service, according to the agency’s announcement.
Morgan was selected as part of NASA’s 21st astronaut class in August 2013. He launched to the space station aboard Soyuz MS-13 on July 20, 2019, a date that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. During his time in orbit, he served as a flight engineer on Expeditions 60, 61, and 62, contributing to scientific experiments, technology demonstrations, and station maintenance while traveling more than 115 million miles across more than 4,300 Earth orbits.
The record that stands out
During that nine-month mission, Morgan completed seven spacewalks totaling 45 hours and 48 minutes. NASA said that broke the record for the most spacewalking time during a single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut. Four of those excursions were devoted to repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, the particle physics detector attached to the space station and designed to search for evidence of antimatter and dark matter.
That work helped define Morgan’s NASA tenure. Long-duration station missions are often remembered through broad numbers such as time in space, but the AMS repair effort is a more specific measure of technical contribution. Spacewalk repairs on complex external hardware are high-stakes tasks that demand procedural discipline, mechanical skill, and crew coordination. The fact that Morgan’s mission included multiple such outings is one reason his departure carries more institutional weight than a routine retirement notice might suggest.
Morgan’s NASA record at a glance
- Selected by NASA in August 2013.
- Spent 272 days in space aboard the International Space Station.
- Served on Expeditions 60, 61, and 62.
- Completed seven spacewalks totaling 45 hours and 48 minutes.
- Set a U.S. record for spacewalking time during a single spaceflight.
A career that extended beyond orbit
NASA’s statement also highlights Morgan’s work on the ground. Over the course of his agency career, he served as mission support branch chief in the Astronaut Office, a crew operations officer, an astronaut mission control team liaison for Expeditions 67 and 68, and Army detachment commander. In his final two years at NASA, he returned to the Army on a rotational assignment as commander of U.S. Army Garrison Kwajalein Atoll and senior military adviser to the U.S. ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Those assignments matter because they show how astronaut careers increasingly extend across operational, managerial, and interagency roles. NASA is not only a place where astronauts fly missions. It also depends on experienced former fliers to support training, readiness, coordination, and the translation of mission experience into organizational capability.
Why this retirement matters
Morgan’s retirement comes at a moment when NASA is balancing ISS operations, commercial partnerships, lunar ambitions, and long-horizon planning for future exploration. Veteran astronauts help connect those eras. Their careers carry practical lessons about risk, maintenance, scientific work in orbit, and the culture required for sustained human spaceflight.
NASA officials underscored that legacy in their statements, pointing to Morgan’s leadership, judgment, and impact across the astronaut corps. The agency’s praise is expected in a retirement announcement, but the underlying record supports it. Morgan’s mission combined duration, technical work, and operational visibility in a way that made him one of the more recognizable station-era astronauts of his cohort.
His departure does not mark an end to service so much as a shift in venue. Morgan is leaving NASA, but not public duty. For NASA, the announcement is another reminder that the station generation of astronauts is beginning to turn over, taking with it a body of experience built in the long middle phase between shuttle operations and whatever sustained deep-space human missions come next.
This article is based on reporting by NASA. Read the original article.
Originally published on nasa.gov
