Mark P. Stucky

rdf:langString Mark P. Stucky

rdf:langString Mark Stucky

rdf:langString Mark Stucky

rdf:langString Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.

rdf:langString Kansas State University, B.S. 1980

rdf:langString American

rdf:langString Marine aviator, USAF Test Pilot, Test pilot, Astronaut

rdf:langString "Forger"

rdf:langString Retired

rdf:langString Mark P. "Forger" Stucky (born 9 November 1958) is an American test pilot and commercial astronaut. In these roles, he was an employee of Virgin Galactic, a private spaceflight company which is developing sub-orbital space tourism flights. On 13 December 2018, Stucky and co-pilot Frederick Sturckow flew VSS Unity VP-03, a Virgin Galactic test flight which reached an apogee of 82.7 km (51.4 mi). This surpassed the United States convention for the boundary of outer space, (50 mi (80.47 km)), but fell short of the Kármán line (100 km (62.14 mi)), the internationally recognized boundary. The flight was notable as an uncommon example of a high-altitude flight with an apogee falling between the two altitudes; other examples include eleven flights of the North American X-15 and Soyuz MS-10, an aborted spaceflight which had occurred weeks earlier. After being fired from Virgin Galactic in 2021, Stucky was hired by Blue Origin to be part of that company's Advanced Development Team in October of that year. Stucky is an accomplished aviator with experience in military, commercial, and experimental flight.