Hoffman is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the International Astronomical Union, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Astronomical Society, the Spanish Academy of Engineering, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.

As of 2005[update] he is co-director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium and a professor of the Practice in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.

Hoffman's original research interests were in high-energy astrophysics, specifically cosmic gamma ray and x-ray astronomy.

His doctoral work at Harvard was the design, construction, testing, and flight of a balloon-borne, low-energy, gamma ray telescope.

He worked in the Center for Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1975 to 1978 as project scientist in charge of the orbiting HEAO-1 A4 hard x-ray and gamma ray experiment, launched in August 1977.

[6] Dr. Hoffman instructed a course in systems engineering on the space shuttle that is available for free in video format from academic earth.

He worked with the orbital maneuvering and reaction control systems, with Shuttle navigation, with crew training, and with the development of satellite deployment procedures.

[7][1] Hoffman left the astronaut program in July 1997 to become NASA's European Representative in Paris, where he served until August 2001.

In August 2001, Hoffman was seconded by NASA to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is a professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

On this mission, the crew deployed the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA), an ESA-sponsored free-flying science platform, and carried out the first test flight of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS), a joint project between NASA and the Italian Space Agency.

During this flight, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was captured, serviced, and restored to full capacity through a record five spacewalks by four astronauts, including Hoffman.