Terrence Wade Wilcutt (born October 31, 1949) is a United States Marine Corps officer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions. Wilcutt was NASA's Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance, until his retirement from NASA in December 2020.
Personal
Born October 31, 1949, in Russellville, Kentucky, but raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Wilcutt graduated from Southern High School in 1967; and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in 1974 from Western Kentucky University where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He then taught high school math for two years before entering the United States Marine Corps.
He was commissioned in 1976 and earned his aviator wings in 1978. Following initial F-4 Phantom training with squadron VMFAT-101, he reported to VMFA-235 at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. While assigned to VMFA-235, Wilcutt attended the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School ("TOPGUN"), and made two overseas deployments to Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. In 1983 he was selected for F/A-18 conversion training, and served as an F/A-18 Fighter Weapons and Air Combat Maneuvering Instructor with VFA-125, Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. In 1986, Wilcutt was selected to attend the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Following graduation, he was assigned as a test pilot/project officer for Strike Aircraft Test Directorate (SATD) at the Naval Air Test Center, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. While assigned to SATD, Wilcutt flew the F/A-18 Hornet, the A-7 Corsair II, the F-4 Phantom, and various other aircraft while serving in a wide variety of projects and classified programs.
He has over 6,600 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.
NASA career
Wilcutt was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1990; he piloted missions STS-68 (1994) and STS-79 (1996). Wilcutt commanded mission STS-89 (1998) to the Mir space station and STS-106 (2000) to the International Space Station.
Wilcutt served as director of safety and mission assurance at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston where he was tasked with the Safety Technical Authority of the programs and projects at JSC as well as JSC's Institutional Safety program. Since Sept 1, 2011, Wilcutt has served as NASA's chief of safety and mission assurance. He was responsible for the development, implementation and oversight of all safety and mission assurance policies and procedures for all NASA programs. He retired from NASA on December 31, 2020.