Jim Wetherbee

Jim Wetherbee is a nonresident fellow with the Baker Institute Space Policy Program, as well as a former NASA astronaut, aerospace engineer, naval officer and aviator. Wetherbee is the only American to have commanded five missions in space and the only person to have landed the space shuttle five times.

He began his career as a naval aviator aboard the USS John F Kennedy, where he flew the A-7 Corsair. In his second tour, he was a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet. Wetherbee has logged 345 arrested landings aboard aircraft carriers, and he has flown 20 different types of air and space vehicles throughout his career. In 1984, he was selected to join NASA’s tenth group of astronauts. Over his 20-year career, he flew six missions on the space shuttle, two missions to the Russian Space Station and two missions to the International Space Station. In 1998, Wetherbee was appointed as director of flight crew operations.

Following his career at NASA, Wetherbee joined the oil and gas industry as a safety and operations auditor for BP Corporation North America, Inc. Four years later, he was named Vice President of Operating Leadership where he emphasized effective leadership behaviors as a key way to influence and inspire people to conduct safe and high-quality operations.

Wetherbee is the author of "Controlling Risk: Thirty Techniques For Operating Excellence." He earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame.