Charles Camarda

NASA career Camarda served as a back-up crew member for Expedition 8 of the International Space Station. His first space flight was STS-114, NASA's "return to flight" mission following the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia.

Camarda continued to work for NASA and pioneered an engineering pedagogical approach called EPIC — that explores how to develop a mission as a collaborative training project. He toured with this including in Finland in 2018.

Following his flight, he was the Director of Engineering at NASA's Johnson Space Center and served as Senior Advisor for Innovation to the Office of Chief Engineer, NASA Headquarters. Camarda retired from NASA in 2019.

Personal life Regarding his early interest in space flight, Camarda said, "It was a time when spaceflight was so intriguing. It was natural for me to want to be an astronaut, to dream of being an astronaut." He is married to Katherine Camarda.

He has one daughter, one grandson and one granddaughter.