Following Morgan's graduation from West Point in 1998, he commissioned into the US Army as a medical officer. He completed his medical training and then volunteered for the US Army Special Operations Command. He was assigned as an physician at Fort Bragg and worked as a medical team member in the Special Operations Command as well as being part of the US Army Parachute Team as a physician. As part of the special operations command, he deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa before being given a strategic special operations assignment in Washington, D.C.. He was preparing to move to an Army base in Germany for a tour of duty before his selection by NASA in 2013.
Astronaut career
Morgan was selected by NASA in June 2013 as one of the eight members of NASA Astronaut Group 21 and began two years of astronaut basic training, this included training in Russian language, robotics, scientific and technical fields, ISS operations, T-38 flight operations, survival and spacewalk operations. Morgan, along with his seven classmates graduated from astronaut training and became eligible for future flight assignments on 7 July 2015. In between completion of his training and assignment to his first flight, Morgan served in NASA EVA/Robotics and Crew Operations branches.
Expedition 60/61/62
Morgan was initially assigned to fly a six-month mission to the ISS as flight engineer on Soyuz MS-13 and Expedition 60 and 61. Although, in April 2019, due to several factors including the aborted launch of Soyuz MS-10 in October 2018, Morgan and fellow astronaut Christina Koch's flight's were extended, Morgan's landing was moved from Soyuz MS-13 to Soyuz MS-15, extending his flight to Expedition 62. Morgan launched into space on board Soyuz MS-13 on July 20, 2019, joining the ISS Expedition 60, 61 and 62 crew as a flight engineer, alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov and Italian ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano.. Just six hours later the trio rendezvoused with the ISS, joining the Expedition 60 crew alongside Russian commander Aleksey Ovchinin and American flight engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch. On 21 August 2019, Morgan conducted his first Spacewalk alongside Hague. The two spent six hours and 32 minutes outside of the ISS installing the International Docking Adapter-3 docking adapter onto the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 docking part, attached to the ISS's Harmony module, the installation of this adapter converted PMA-3 from the older APAS-95 docking system, used by the Space Shuttle, to the newer International Docking System Standard, which will allow the port to be used by the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft being developed to ferry crew to the ISS under the Commercial Crew Program. Over the course of Expedition 61, Morgan participated in six more spacewalks, two alongside Christina Koch, replacing batteries on the station's port truss segments, and four alongside Luca Parmitano, repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics experiment, located on the outside of the ISS, both of them were assisted by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir who operated the Canadarm2 robotic arm from inside the Station. The spacewalks were described as the "most challenging since Hubble repairs". In November 2019, he cast a ballot from outer space in that year's Pennsylvania elections. During Expedition 62, Morgan was present on the ISS for the arrival and departure of SpaceXCRS-20, the final flight of SpaceX's Cargo Dragonrobotic resupply spacecraft before its replacement by Crago Dragon 2. On April 9, during the final days of Expedition 62, the crew were joined by the three crew members of Soyuz MS-16, Russian cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner as well as NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy. Following the arrival of Soyuz MS-16, Expedition 62 spent eight days as a six person increment, during this period, Morgan participated in a segment of Some Good News, an internet show hosted by American actor John Krasinski to spread good news during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. On April 17, 2020, Morgan, alongside NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-15, ending a 272-day spaceflight for Morgan, the fourth-longest single spaceflight for an American astronaut.
