Frederick Wilford "Rick" Sturckow (born August 11, 1961) is an engineer, retired United States Marine Corps officer, former NASA astronaut, and commercial spacecraft pilot.

While assigned to VMFA-333 he made an overseas deployment to Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines and was then selected to attend the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) in March 1990.

In 1993 he reported to the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, for duty as the F/A-18 E/F Project Pilot.

Sturckow retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel, in September, 2009, after 25 years of active duty service.

He completed a year of training and evaluation and was assigned to work technical issues for the Vehicle Systems and Operations Branch of the Astronaut Office.

[8] The appointment allowed the commander, Mark Kelly (who subsequently flew the mission), to continue to support his wife, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, while she recovered from an attempted assassination.

[9] On May 8, 2013, Virgin Galactic announced[10] they had hired Sturckow for flight testing of the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft and the White Knight Two aircraft, as the company prepares for subsequent commercial operations.

[11] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.