Richard Michael Mullane, nicknamed Mike Mullane (born September 10, 1945) is an American science-fiction and non-fiction author, retired US Air Force officer and former NASA astronaut. Mullane was born in Wichita Falls, Texas but grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He studied at the United States Military Academy and earned a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He graduated from West Point in 1967 and saw military service in Vietnam.