Mark Pestana is a research pilot and project manager at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. He is a pilot for the Beech B200 King Air, the T-34C and the Predator B. He flies the F-18 Hornet as a co-pilot and flight test engineer. Pestana has accumulated more than 4,000 hours of military and civilian flight experience. He was also a flight engineer on the NASA DC-8 flying laboratory.

Pestana was the project manager and pilot for the Hi–rate Wireless Airborne Network Demonstration flown on the NASA B200 research aircraft. He flew B200 research missions for the X-38 Space Integrated Inertial Navigation Global Positioning System experiment. Pestana also participated in several deployments of the DC-8, including Earth science expeditions ranging from hurricane research over the Caribbean Sea to ozone studies over the North Pole, atmospheric chemistry over the South Pacific, rain forest health in Central America, Rocky Mountain ice pack assessment, and volcanic and tectonic activity around the Pacific Rim.

He came to Dryden as a DC-8 mission manager in June 1998 from NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, where he served as the Earth and Space Science discipline manager for the International Space Station Program at Johnson. Pestana also served as a flight crew operations engineer in the Astronaut Office, developing the controls, displays, tools, crew accommodations and procedures for on-orbit assembly, test, and checkout of the International Space Station. He led the analysis and technical negotiations for modification of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as an emergency crew return vehicle for space station crews.

He joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1991 and held various positions as a research and development engineer, intelligence analyst, and Delta II launch vehicle systems engineer. He retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve with the rank of colonel in 2005.

Prior to 1990, Pestana was on active duty with the U.S. Air Force as the director of mission planning for the Department of Defense Space Test Program, testing developmental spacecraft systems on space shuttle and Department of Defense satellites.

Pestana received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. He initially served as an orbit analyst at the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colo. As an Air Force pilot, Pestana flew T-38s, KC-135 tankers, and RC-135 "Rivet Joint" and "Combat Sent" reconnaissance aircraft.

Pestana earned a Bachelor of Science in Natural Sciences from Loyola University, Los Angeles, in 1975. He earned a Master of Science in Systems Management/Research and Development from the University of Southern California in 1988.