After completing a master of science degree at the University of Virginia in 1989, he was assigned as a flight test engineer and as the research and development coordinator with the Army Aviation Engineering Flight Activity at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Forrester was assigned to NASA at the Johnson Space Center as an aerospace engineer in July 1993.

His technical assignments within the Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch have included: flight software testing with the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL); Astronaut Office representative for Landing/Rollout issues, Multi-function Electronic Display System (MEDS) upgrade of the Orbiter fleet, and the Portable In-flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT).

Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist.

During the mission, Forrester and Dan Barry performed two spacewalks totaling 11 hours and 45 minutes of EVA time.

The mission also delivered crewmember Clayton Anderson, and returned with Sunita Williams from the Expedition 15 crew.

STS-117 returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California, having traveled 5.8 million miles in 14 days.

While at the orbital outpost, the STS-128 crew rotated Nicole Stott for crewmember Timothy Kopra on Expedition 20, attached the Leonardo MPLM and transferred more than 18,000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the ISS.

The STS-128 mission was accomplished in 217 orbits of the Earth, traveling more than 5.7 million miles in 332 hours and 53 minutes and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.