Kevin A. Ford is the 13th AFIT alum to become an astronaut. Ford, 49, will pilot the Space Shuttle Discovery to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station in late August 2009.

According to the August 2009 NASA Mission Summary, inside the shuttle’s cargo bay is the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), a pressurized "moving van" that will be temporarily installed to the station. The module will deliver science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill.

The 13-day mission will include three spacewalks to replace experiments outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory, and install a new ammonia storage tank and return the used one.

Ford received his PhD in Astronautical Engineering from AFIT in 1997. The title of his dissertation was "Reorientations of Flexible Spacecraft Using Momentum Exchange Devices."