Earning his bachelor's from Aerospace Engineering in 1981, Altman has been an astronaut since 1995. The pilot on STS-90 (1998) and STS-106 (2000), and the mission commander on STS-109 (2002), Altman has logged over 38 days in space. He is assigned to command STS-125, the final Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission will extend and improve the observatory's capabilities through 2014. Launch is targeted for this year, although an exact date has not been set.
Prior to being selected for the astronaut program, Altman was a pilot for the U.S. Navy. He has logged over 5000 flight hours in more than 40 types of aircraft.