He later served as Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force under the Bush and Obama Administrations.

[2] Payton served as a spacecraft test controller from 1976 to 1980, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida.

Payton traveled over 1.2 million miles in 48 Earth orbits, and logged more than 73 hours in space.

[3] From 1997 to 2000, Payton also served as NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Transportation Technology where he initiated, planned and led the Reusable Launch Vehicle technology demonstration program, which included the X-33, X-34, X-37 and DC-XA flight test projects.

[4] After leaving NASA, Payton joined the ORBIMAGE as its Vice President for Engineering and Operations.