Jeffrey Shears Ashby (born June 16, 1954) is an American mechanical engineer, and former naval officer and aviator, test pilot and NASA astronaut, a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions.

He attended the University of Idaho as a member of the school's joint Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1976.

[1] During Desert Storm while based on the USS Midway (CV-41), Ashby became the first F/A-18 pilot to deploy the Walleye TV guided bomb in combat.

[2] Later in the war, on February 13, 1991,[3] Ashby and his wingman found and destroyed a camouflaged Iraqi Super Frelon helicopter which had been armed with Exocet cruise missiles that could've attacked the Midway.

Ashby's latter two flights aboard Endeavour and Atlantis were the sixth and ninth assembly missions for the International Space Station.

On July 15, 2019, Ashby sustained severe injuries after falling 500 feet near the summit of La Plata Peak mountain.