Cool Dad Job: Lead Test Pilot, Virgin Galactic

Cool Dad Vibe: Chuck Yaeger’s Drinking Buddy

Cool Dad Bona Fides: Mark Stucky goes by “Forger,” which is the sort of cool nickname you get when you spend the first half of your career in super-fast jets and the second half piloting spacecraft. Stucky, a former airline pilot, mortgage salesman, Marine, and astronaut also-ran worked for NASA as a test pilot (famously pushing the SR-71 Blackbird past Mach 3) before landing a gig piloting Richard Branson’s SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, rocket-boosted vehicles designed to one-day take passengers into orbit. Stucky isn’t bound for Mars, but he seems bound for glory as a modern haver of the right stuff. His job has put him on the road (well, above it), but he has been clear about his intention to get closer to his kids even as he gets further from the ground.