Michael Melvill

Michael Melvill (born Nov. 11, 1940?, Johannesburg, S.Af.) is an American test pilot, the first commercial astronaut, and the first person to travel into space aboard a privately funded spacecraft. Melvill was raised in Durban, S.Af., and attended but did not graduate from Hilton College, a private boarding high school in Hilton. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1967, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1972. He was hired by American aerospace...