Norman Earl Thagard, M.D.,is an American scientist and former U.S. Marine Corps officer and naval aviator and NASA astronaut. He is the first American to ride to space on board a Russian vehicle, and can be considered the first American cosmonaut. Thagard resumed his academic studies in 1971, pursuing additional studies in Electrical Engineering and a degree in medicine. Before joining NASA, he was interning in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is a licensed physician, and a pilot