Search engine giant Google has hired former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, Wired.com reports.The veteran space shuttle flyer left NASA earlier this month to pursue a career in the private sector and will be moving to California as part of his career change.
With a doctorate in astrophysics the Massachusetts-born space expert is expected to play a role in the development of Google applications, including Google Sky, Google Books and Google Scholar.
The recently launched Google Sky allows users to star gaze by accessing images of over one million stars and 200 million galaxies.
By clicking a button people can alter their view point from the Earth to the sky and can also see pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Mr Lu, now 44 years old, has flown on two shuttle missions and has spent a total of six months on board the International Space Station as a member of the orbiting laboratory's crew.
First selected as an astronaut in 1994, he has spent six hours spacewalking and is a qualified mission specialist.
Google is set to benefit from Mr Lu's technical experience, which includes working in the astronaut office computer support branch at NASA and being lead astronaut for shuttle training.
Earlier this month, NAC Geographic Products announced the release of the NAC Enhanced Google Earth, which is intended to provide a language-independent, geographically complete and efficient method for computer users to scan the globe.
