Michael Edward Fossum (born December 19, 1957, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) is a former American astronaut, engineer, and the Chief Operating Officer of Texas A&M University at Galveston.

Fossum was involved with the United States Air Force during his undergraduate years at Texas A&M and served as commander of Squadron 3 in the Corps of Cadets.

His primary responsibilities were to evaluate the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for use as an emergency escape vehicle for the new International Space Station.

Later in 1993, Fossum was selected to represent the Flight Crew Operations Directorate in an extensive redesign of the International Space Station (ISS).

After returning to Earth in 2011, Fossum has served in a number of capacities, including assistant to the chief of the astronaut office for the International Space Station.

On June 7, 2011, Fossum launched with crewmates Sergey Alexandrovich Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa on Soyuz TMA-02M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, to the ISS to join the crew of Expedition 28.

During the EVA They retrieved a failed pump module for return to Earth, installed two experiments and repaired a new base for the Canada Arm 2.

[6] In January 2017, Fossum left NASA and accepted a position with Texas A&M University at Galveston as vice president and chief operating officer.