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3 officers get spots on space shuttle missions

Three Air Force officers serving as NASA astronauts received orders Friday for flights into orbit aboard the space shuttle.

Col. Terry Virts Jr. will serve as the pilot for STS-130. Onboard with Virts for the December 2009 mission will be Lt. Col. Robert Behnken, flying as mission specialist.

Lt. Col. James P. Dutton Jr. will fly as pilot aboard STS-131 in February 2010.

Virts, who joined NASA in 2000, holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Air Force Academy and a master’s degree in aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He spent much of his Air Force career flying operational F-16 missions and graduated from Test Pilot School in 1998.

Behnken joined NASA in 2000 and recently flew as a mission specialist on STS-123. He holds bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and physics from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and a doctorate degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. As an Air Force flight test engineer, he worked on the F-22 program.

Dutton joined NASA in 2004. He has a bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering from the Air Force Academy, where was the top graduate in the Class of 1991. He also earned a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Washington in Seattle. After assignments as an operational F-15C pilot, Dutton flew as an F-22 test pilot. In 2003, he earned the Bobby Bond Award as the top Air Force test pilot.