Frank L. Culbertson, Jr.

(1949-)

American naval officer, aviator, and astronaut

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Frank Lee Culbertson Jr. (born May 15, 1949) (Capt, USN, Ret.) is an American former naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aerospace engineer, NASA astronaut and graduate of the US Naval Academy. He served as the Commander of the International Space Station for almost four months in 2001 and was the only U.S. citizen not on Earth when the September 11 attacks occurred. Charles Burlingame, the captain of the plane which struck the Pentagon, was his classmate at Annapolis. He recently retired as President of the Space Systems Group at Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. Mr. Culbertson was responsible for the execution, business development and financial performance of the company's human spaceflight, science, commercial communications, and national security satellite activities, as well as technical services to various government customers. These include some of Northrop Grumman's largest and most important programs such as NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) initiatives to the International Space Station (ISS) as well as various national security-related programs.