Biography

Dr. Tarver received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center – San Antonio in 1989 and then he completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the Audie Murphy VA Hospital.  Following his internship he immediately began fulltime active duty as a flight surgeon assigned to the Flight Test squadron, Kelly AFB, San Antionio and now he has several stories to tell concerning B52s and C5s. 3 years later he began his residency in Aerospace and then Occupational Medicine at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine.  He now has board certifications in both.

Following his time at the School of Aerospace Medicine, he was assigned as the chief of the Flight Medicine Clinic, Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea (aka South Korea).  This was followed by 3 years back at the School of Aerospace Medicine where he was the director of the “Global Medicine” course, aka a basic tropical medicine course.  Additionally, he was the director of the Aircraft Accident and Prevention course.

Following his time on active duty in the Air Force, Dr. Tarver moved to a small Texas town (Seguin) and managed his own private clinic where he was an FAA senior AME and occupational medicine physician.  He did this for 5 years before he visited Johnson Space Center/NASA and fell in love with the idea of providing NASA-based “LSAH exams” for former “moon walkers” such as Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan (first and last men on the moon). Following 5 years of private practice medicine, Dr. Tarver joined the NASA space medicine team.

For the next 20 years Dr. Tarver provided a broad spectrum of medical services within the space medicine team at Johnson Space Center.  His initial assignment was within the JSC Flight Medicine Clinic where he provided medical examinations to active and former astronauts.  It was during this time that he became familiar with the “Lifetime Study of Astronaut Health” program – subsequently this program converted from a research-based program to the epidemiologically driven “Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health” program.  In support of the LSAH program, astronauts are invited back to JSC annually to update their medical history and get an “LSAH exam”. 

After being the primary physician providing medical guidance in the Flight Medicine Clinic, Dr. Tarver became the lead for that clinic followed a few years later as the first Medical Director for both the Flight Medicine Clinic and the Occupational Medicine Clinic, aka the “JSC Clinic”.  During his time working in the JSC medical clinics, he provided guidance and leadership related to physician credentialing, quality improvement, space medicine pharmaceuticals, as well as the LSAH program.  Eventually, Dr Tarver became the acting chief of the Space and Occupational Medicine Branch thus performing in the role of the lead physician over the JSC flight surgeons and occupational medicine physicians. 

In 2016 Dr. Tarver had the opportunity to become an operational NASA flight surgeon where his primary responsibility is to care for active astronauts before, during and after spaceflight missions.  In this role he provided medical care for several astronauts during Expeditions 53/54, 59/60 and 68. His operational flight surgeon work included travel to Moscow/Star City (Russia), Baikonur (Kazakhstan), as well as short flights to Hawthorne, CA where SpaceX has its headquarters.  Dr. Tarver was the prime flight surgeon for “Crew 5” which included the first cosmonaut (Anna Kikina) to fly aboard a US built (SpaceX) spacecraft.

In addition to the above activities, Dr. Tarver served in many different roles such as astronaut selection and annual medical certification.  Two specific roles he served in include as the clinical lead for Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) during his last decade at NASA.  Also, he has several years as the medical representative to the NASA Institutional Review Board where all human-involved research was reviewed prior to approval at JSC or on the ISS.

Dr. Tarver is now retired from NASA (as of 3/2026) and is consulting on commercial spaceflight medical requirements.