Astronaut Mike Fincke, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and recent commander of International Space Station's Expedition 18, will be back in his hometown this weekend. He will share highlights of his six months aboard the ISS at Carnegie Science Center in a sold-out members-only event on Saturday and make a special appearance at the Steelers game on Sunday

Col. Fincke was born on March 14, 1967, in Pittsburgh and grew up in Emsworth. The Sewickley Academy graduate and his wife and three kids now live in Houston, but his parents still live in Emsworth.

He always dreamed of becoming an astronaut. When he was 3 years old, he remembers watching the Apollo 11 astronauts walking on the moon. He credits the Apollo missions and encouragement from his parents for the inspiration to become an astronaut.

Col. Fincke was the NASA Space Station science officer and flight engineer for Expedition 9 in 2004. He spent six months aboard the ISS, supervising science operations, maintaining station systems and performing four spacewalks. The mission concluded with undocking from the station and safe landing back in Kazakhstan in October 2004.

He then went on to serve as Space Station commander of Expedition 18 from October 2008 until April 2009. Col. Fincke and his three-person crew helped prepare the station for future six-person crews. During Expedition 18, the station went to full power and began water supply recycling. He and his crew also worked with a variety of experiments that will help with planning future missions to the moon and beyond.

Col. Fincke, who is one of only three Americans who've been in space for more than a year, is currently assigned to the crew of STS-134 to the International Space Station. The mission will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a state-of-the-art cosmic ray particle physics detector designed to examine fundamental issues about matter and the origin and structure of the universe.

That's Fascinating, where Mark Roth spotlights the odd and the interesting in everyday life, is featured exclusively in the Opinion section on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.