Over 30 New Yorkers Have Gone to Space, Including Southern Tier Astronauts

When my father-in-law was a little boy, he got to meet John Glenn. It's something he still talks about all these years later, and I completely understand why.

Glenn wasn't just an astronaut. He was the first American to orbit Earth, a national hero and somebody whose name was in every history book. Meeting him as a kid must have felt like meeting a real-life superhero.

That story got me thinking about New York State’s own connection to space exploration. We know the big names like John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, and Sally Ride, but how many people with New York roots have actually gone to space?

My father-in-law, the boy to the left, and John Glenn                                                 TSM/Traci Taylor

More than 30 people born in New York State have traveled beyond Earth’s atmosphere. That includes career astronauts as well as private citizens who flew in space. NASA’s Astronaut Fact Book shows just how many people with New York birthplaces have gone on to careers in spaceflight.

Some grew up in New York City, some came from Long Island and several have roots right here in the Southern Tier. That is a pretty remarkable thing to think about.

The Southern Tier Has Three Incredible Space Connections

For those of us in the Southern Tier, this is where the story gets especially exciting.

Eileen Collins was born in Elmira and made history as the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle and later the first woman to command a space mission. Before heading off to Stanford and eventually NASA, Collins attended Corning Community College and Syracuse University.

According to NASA, Collins flew four Space Shuttle missions and logged more than 872 hours in space. Her final mission, STS-114, was the first Shuttle flight after the Columbia tragedy.

Doug Wheelock was born in Binghamton and grew up in Windsor. He flew on Space Shuttle Discovery and later spent more than five months aboard the International Space Station. He completed six spacewalks during his NASA career.

Then there is Doug Hurley, born in Endicott and raised in Apalachin. He piloted the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011 and later commanded SpaceX Demo-2, the first crewed orbital flight launched from American soil by a private spacecraft company. The Empire Space project highlights the Southern Tier roots of Collins, Wheelock and Hurley.

It is hard not to feel a little proud knowing that three people from this corner of New York went on to do things most of us have only watched happen on TV.

New York Women Have Made Space History

Collins is far from the only New York woman to make history above Earth.

Nicole Stott was born in Albany and flew on two Space Shuttle missions. Jeanette Epps was born in Syracuse and became the second Black woman to join a long-duration crew on the International Space Station. Mary Cleave, born in Southampton, flew two Shuttle missions and later held major leadership roles at NASA.

Anna Lee Fisher was born in New York City and became the first mother to fly in space. Her 1984 Shuttle mission was also one of the first to deploy satellites and retrieve others for repair.

They did not just go to space. They helped change who young girls could picture when they imagined an astronaut.

New Yorkers Have Flown on NASA’s Biggest Missions

New York astronauts have been part of some of the biggest moments in American spaceflight.

Ed Gibson, born in Buffalo, was a science pilot on Skylab 4 and spent 84 days in space. Jim Wetherbee, from Queens, flew six Space Shuttle missions and commanded five of them.

Mike Massimino, born in Oceanside and raised on Long Island, took part in two Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions and completed four spacewalks. Today, the former astronaut is a professor at Columbia University.

Ron Garan, from Yonkers, spent more than 177 days in space between Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions. Steven Swanson, born in Syracuse, also lived aboard the International Space Station and completed four spacewalks.

New York’s connection reaches into nearly every era of American spaceflight, from Skylab and the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station and commercial space travel.

Even Private Spaceflight Has a New York Connection

Not everybody on the list came through NASA’s astronaut corps.

Dennis Tito, born in Queens, became the first person to pay for a trip to space when he visited the International Space Station in 2001. Gregory Olsen, born in Brooklyn, followed in 2005 and became the third private citizen to travel to space.

Whether they were military pilots, scientists, engineers, or private citizens, every one of them left New York and saw the world from a view most of us can only imagine.

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New York State Has a Remarkable Space Story

More than 30 New York-born people have gone to space. That is not a small footnote in American history. It is a real part of the state’s story.

From Binghamton, Endicott, and Elmira to Buffalo, Syracuse, Long Island, and New York City, people with New York roots have piloted Space Shuttles, repaired the Hubble Space Telescope, and lived for months aboard the space station.

I think that is what makes local connections like these so fun to find. You can be driving through Endicott, headed toward Elmira, or sitting in Binghamton traffic and suddenly remember that people from these same places once looked down at all of it from space.

New York has sent more than 30 people beyond Earth’s atmosphere. That's an incredible legacy for the Empire State.