The space shuttle Atlantis will have
a mix of hands-on experience and first-time enthusiasm at its helm when the spacecraft launches toward the International Space
Station (ISS) on Sunday.
In the
commander's seat will be NASA
astronaut Brent Jett, a three-time shuttle flyer who has already led one
mission to deliver power to the ISS. His pilot is Chris
Ferguson, an accomplished U.S. Navy aviator, who will reach space for the first
time during Atlantis' STS-115
mission to jump start ISS construction.
"You know,
we have to finish the station," Jett said in an interview. "I think that this
is the first return to assembly, and there's a little more scrutiny or a little
more focus on it."
Jett,
Ferguson and their four STS-115
crewmates are poised
to launch toward the ISS at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Aug. 27. NASA's
third shuttle flight since the 2003
Columbia accident, the mission will deliver the first major addition - the
Port 3/Port 4 (P3/P4) truss and solar panels - to the space station since
NASA's STS-113
flight launched in November
2002.
Solar
array veteran
A captain
in the U.S. Navy, Jett, 47, hails from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and joined
NASA's astronaut ranks in 1992. He admits that human spaceflight was not always
on his to-do list even though the early Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts
were among his childhood heroes.
"But I did
not have that revelation at that early age that some day I'm going to be an
astronaut," Jett said in a NASA interview. "It just didn't seem like it was
even a possibility for me."
It was the
Navy that led Jett to NASA. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981 as
the first in a class of 976 and was designated a Naval Aviator two years later.
After nine
years as a test pilot, Jett visited NASA's Johnson Space Center astronaut
training center and decided to pursue a spaceflight career. He served as a
pilot aboard Endeavour during NASA's STS-72 mission in 1996, then again one
year later during Atlantis' STS-81 flight to Russia's Mir
space station.
Jett's
commanded his third shuttle flight - STS-97
aboard Endeavour in November 2000 - to deliver the first U.S.-built solar
arrays to the ISS. The mission hit a snag when parts of the first solar panel stuck
together while being deployed, forcing a spacewalk
repair.
"Of course,
we were pretty disappointed," Jett recalls of that last flight. "We felt like
maybe we could have done things a little better had we waited [for sunlight to
warm the array], which is kind of what we're going to do now."
Keeping the
STS-115 crew together and fit for flight across more than four years of
training and delays has been the greatest challenge for Jett.
"We were 12
weeks from flight when the Columbia accident occurred...we were pretty much as
ready as we needed to be," Jett said this month. "If you're with a group of
folks for an extended period of time you become really like family."
Jett, who
is married to wife Janet, told reporters that while human spaceflight is a
risky pursuit, there are positive returns on many levels.
"It's also
a very personally rewarding experience," Jett said. "Hopefully, once we
complete the station, the benefit to folks here on Earth will be worth it.
"When you
compare the risks that we take to some of the risks that our colleagues in the
Armed Forces are faced with on a daily basis, I'm not sure you can compare the
two," he added.
Fly-around
dreams
Like Jett,
Ferguson - who answers to the nickname "Fergie" - is also a veteran Navy test
pilot and sidelines as the drummer for the all-astronaut rock
band Max Q. But alas, he said, he'll leave his drum sticks on Earth during
STS-115.
"I one more
[personal item] left and they said that a pair of drum sticks was two items,"
Ferguson, 44, said in an interview this month. "So I had to leave the drum
sticks back."
A native of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ferguson joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1998 and
has spent more than four years training for his first flight, which was delayed
as NASA recovered from the
Columbia accident.
"Well, this
is as close we've ever been," Ferguson said of his upcoming launch. "Of course
I'm anxious, it's my first flight. If anybody told you they weren't anxious on
their first flight, they'd be lying to you."
Ferguson is
raising three children with his wife Sandra, all of whom are currently
preoccupied with the upcoming school year and not their father's impending
space shot. But the 23-year veteran Navy pilot knows that they have a hard
launch day ahead when they watch him rocket spaceward aboard Atlantis.
"I
sympathize with my wife, she's going to have to put up with that," Ferguson
said, adding that he's discussed the risks of spaceflight with his family.
"We've talked about the things you'd expect."
But
resuming ISS construction, he said, is vital not only to fulfill NASA's
international partner obligations, but also to push human space exploration
forward.
"I'd like
to think we're going to end up on the Moon
on at least a semi-permanent basis, and that's a good thing," Ferguson said in
a NASA interview. "There's [a] lot to be gleaned from the Moon."
More
than an orbital housekeeper
Ferguson
has likened his much of his Atlantis pilot duties that of shuttle housekeeper,
but he also serves as backup robotic arm operator during the STS-115 mission's
vital orbiter heat shield inspections, as well as the P3/P4 truss delivery.
"Shuttle
pilots are often the overlooked crewmember on flights," Jett said of his
crewmate. "But I'll tell ya, if I was allowed to pick a pilot to fly with, I
couldn't have picked a better person than Chris Ferguson. Not only is he very
professionally confident, he's just a great guy to have around."
But the personal
highlight, Ferguson said, comes when Atlantis undocks from the ISS. If the
shuttle's fuel supply is ample enough, Ferguson will get a chance to fly the
orbiter around the ISS while his crewmates photograph what is expected to be a dramatically
different space station with the new
solar arrays unfurled.
"I'm
excited," Ferguson said. "I like to think that we're going to get some great
shots."
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