Lounge served on three space shuttle missions starting in August 1985, according to his NASA bio. His second mission followed the tragic Challenger accident in January 1986. He resigned from NASA in June of 1991 after his third mission, which launched on Dec. 2, 1990.

While Lounge was born in Denver, the Burlington Record says he always considered Burlington his hometown. He graduated from Burlington High School before going on to the U.S. Naval Academy where he got his bachelor's degree, and the University of Colorado, where he got a master's degree in astrophysics.

He returned home often, however, and was asked several times, including in 2010, to be the featured speaker at his alma mater's graduation ceremonies. Years ago, Burlington honored their hometown hero by renaming the street in front of the high school Mike Lounge Drive.

Before serving in the space program, Lounge was a F-4J Phantom radar intercept officer, serving in the Fighter Squadron 142 based at the Naval Air Station in Miramar, California. He went on 99 combat missions when the squadron was sent on a nine-month Southeast Asia cruise aboard the USS Enterprise and seven-month Mediterranean cruise aboard the USS America, according to the Burlington Record. Lounge also was an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy in the physics department.