As a civilian employee of the US Navy, he flew aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-51-F as a Payload Specialist.

Prior to his present position, Bartoe was Director of Operations and Utilization in the Space Station Office of NASA Headquarters from 1990 to 1994.

Before coming to NASA Headquarters, he flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-51-F (July 29 to August 6, 1985) as a civilian Navy payload specialist.

In completing this flight, Bartoe traveled over 2.8 million miles in 126 Earth orbits and logged over 190 hours in space.

From 1966 to 1988, Bartoe worked as an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and published over 60 papers in the field of solar physics observations and instrumentation.