Michael Baker:  

Life My career profession has been engineering (EE degree from NCSU). My current and final job in the USAF is Launch Programs Director responsible for acquiring and launching rockets to orbit military satellites like GPS and intelligence satellites for the Intelligence Community. Including my enlisted time, I have been in the Air Force over 34 years. I retire in May 2006 as a colonel with 34 years and 3 months service. My two daughters are obviously grown. One is married and a teacher in Glendale Ca and the other is single and an electrical engineer working for Raytheon in LA. My wife and I hope to move to New Mexico into a transition job at the Air Force Research Lab before I retire for good in 2011. Then we plan to settle in central Florida and possibly buy a sailboat and sail around the Caribbean and Gulf. My mother, Lummie Weathers (uses her maiden name), still lives by herself in a nice trailer in Graham. My brother still lives in Greensboro, and my sister still lives in Gastonia. I am the only one who has lived and worked most of my life outside of North Carolina. Military COLONEL MICHAEL T. BAKER Colonel Michael T. Baker is the Commander, 45th Launch Group, 45th Space Wing, Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida. He is the Wing focal point to all government launch programs for space and space-related activities. He is responsible for launch base vehicle processing integrity and anomaly resolution for Atlas, Delta, and Titan launch vehicles and MILSTAR, DSCS, DSP, and GPS. Colonel Baker also oversees the launch of government satellites utilizing the new Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV), the Delta IV and Atlas V. Additionally, Colonel Baker is designated as the Mission Director for Delta II/GPS launches and Deputy Mission Director for Titan IV launches of Air Force payloads. Colonel Baker was selected by ...Expand for more