He piloted the Columbia flight launched on 18 November 1993, piloted the Atlantis space shuttle mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir in March 1996, and commanded the last Spacelab mission launched in April 1998 on board the Columbia space shuttle. Searfoss was selected as an astronaut in 1990. He retired from the US Air Force and as an astronaut in 1998, was later a research test pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, and left in February 2003 to pursue private business interests.