Michael was born 19 February 1988 in Birmingham, England to his parents Mick and Jane. He had an elder half-sister, Gena, and three younger brothers: Luke, Thomas, and Benjamin. Michael was an inquisitive little boy with a thirst for knowledge and a competitive spirit. He enjoyed playing rugby and skateboarding in his early years. Michael did very well in school and, in 2006, attended Bristol University, where he studied chemistry. In his final year at uni, he secured a position at EDF Energy, where we worked faithfully for 14 years in chemistry and human factors, designing the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Michael always worked hard and was very ambitious in his career.
In 2015, it was on a nuclear energy conference trip to Charlotte, North Carolina where Michael, by chance, met Madison. It was love at first sight. The two lived long-distance for two full years, Madison in America and Michael in England. Madison made the move to the U.K. in 2017 where they lived together in Bristol and later settled into their family home near Gloucester.
In 2020, Michael began learning to fly with the Cotswold Aero Club at Staverton Airport in a Robin R2112 series aircraft. The flying inspired Michael so profoundly and, while most people might just daydream about becoming an astronaut, Michael lived his life with a different philosophy. He read for hours and grew an impressive library full of books about spacecraft systems, rocket propulsion, orbital mechanics, and astrodynamics and read purposefully about all the previous missions, space exploration, and even began teaching himself Russian. Michael was a big fan of first British Astronaut Tim Peake and, in the hopes of following in his footsteps, Michael applied to the European Space Agency’s astronaut selection where he made it through the first phase. He believed entirely he could do it. He continued racking up over 60 hours of flying and was only one test away from obtaining his private pilot’s license before losing his medical due to a cancer diagnosis in September 2021. A very rare and aggressive adrenal cortex carcinoma. This also came at the same time Madison and Michael were 37 weeks pregnant with their first child, a daughter, Jovie.
Michael underwent major abdominal surgery and started chemotherapy but was told in April 2022 that the cancer had not responded and was now deemed terminal. Michael refused to accept defeat and jumped whole-heartedly at every possible treatment option presented to him, including a clinical trial in Oxford. His indomitable spirit amazed and inspired everyone who knew him. Michael carried on living his life to the fullest, planning far into the future and dreaming of one day flying again. In his office, he had a flight simulator on which he enjoyed practicing runway approaches and take-offs from airports around the world.
Despite the disease continuing to spread, Michael took such immense care of Madison and Jovie and they used every opportunity to make precious memories together. Michael took great pride in teaching Jovie about flying and the vast wonders of the universe. They often went together to the Bristol Aerospace Museum and he even took Jovie to the Royal International Air Tattoo in July 2022. Michael used to joke about taking Jovie’s future potential suitors up in his airplane and cutting off the engine to see how they’d react in a crisis.
When visiting their American family over the years, Michael made a habit of stopping in at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. It meant so much to Michael to witness his first live launch here in summer 2023, a SpaceX Delta 4 Heavy. That summer, Michael began his collection of all the human space flight patches. It was in his final weeks at the Sue Ryder Hospice in Cheltenham spring 2024 when he began collating them into a book with handwritten details on each patch for Jovie to one day read and treasure. Michael wrote the opening page to the catalogue which read:
"The National Aeronautics and Administration (NASA) was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), emphasising the peaceful exploration and application of science in space.
"This catalogue contains all mission patches from crewed human spaceflight, from 1958 to the present day, beginning with Project Mercury and the infamous Mercury Seven Astronauts, through to Project Gemini and the 30-year long Space Shuttle program. Human spaceflight is now in its fourth era of human spaceflight and exploration, with the introduction of the commercial sector; in particular, SpaceX and the crew Dragon.
"The journey continues; to the moon, or should I say back to the moon and beyond to Mars.
"The Artemis-Orion missions have begun with the launch of Artemis 1 on 16 November 2022, but there is still a long way to go and plenty of issues to be resolved and mitigated. Will we make it to Mars before 2040? Will I get to see it?”
It will be a great privilege for Madison and the family to add the Destiny Flight mission patch to Michael’s catalogue. It was Michael himself who found the Celestis Memorial service and requested for Madison to make the arrangements in the event of his death.
Michael had so much passion and optimism for scientific development and the future betterment of the Earth through space exploration. It will be from his final resting place on the moon that Michael will have a front-row seat to watch the continuation of human spaceflight for all of time without end. And his family can smile up at him knowing his dreams of going to space came true.
