Chief Astronaut Instructor, Virgin Galactic

Beth Moses is an American astronaut, aerospace engineer and Chief Astronaut Instructor at Virgin Galactic, a private spaceflight company developing space tourism. Moses trains all cabin astronauts for flights in SpaceShipTwo. On February 22, 2019 Moses launched to space on flight VF01 and performed the first-ever test of SpaceShipTwo’s cabin. She is the first astronaut to unstrap on a suborbital flight and the first female commercial astronaut. She was awarded FAA commercial astronaut wings #007.

Previously, Moses worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center as the Extravehicular Activity System Manager for the International Space Station. She led the human-in-the-loop testing which verified the systems used to assemble ISS in orbit. As a result of her contributions ISS received the Robert J. Collier trophy honoring the “greatest achievement in aeronautics and astronautics in America” for “successful design, development, and assembly of the worlds’ largest spacecraft, an orbiting laboratory, promising new discoveries for mankind and setting new standards for international co-operation in space.”

Moses received her BS and MS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University. She is the recipient of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium Women in Space Science Award and a Google Science Fair judge.