Two astronauts
are looking forward to their first taste of space when NASA's shuttle Endeavour
rockets towards the International Space Station (ISS) this week.
Mission
specialists Tracy Caldwell and Alvin Drew, Jr. are each poised to make their
first career spaceflights with NASA's STS-118 mission set to
launch Aug. 8.
"It's
almost unreal," Caldwell told reporters in an interview. "I haven't allowed
myself to get too giddy imagining what floating in space is going to be like
and trying to do all the things that I'm trained to do."
Caldwell,
Drew and five crewmates will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
to deliver cargo, spare parts and a new piece of the space station's
starboard-side truss. Endeavour's crew also includes teacher-turned-astronaut
Barbara Morgan, who joined NASA as the backup for Teacher in Space Christa
McAuliffe in 1985. McAuliffe and six astronauts were aboard the space shuttle
Challenger when it broke apart just after launch in January 1986.
Teacher
in Space's legacy
As Mission
Specialist 1 during the STS-118 mission, Caldwell will choreograph up to four
spacewalks from inside Endeavour, as well as wield the orbiter's robotic arm.
She joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1998, but her interest in spaceflight
began at age 16 in 1986 while the agency was preparing to launch the first
teacher into space.
"It
was all because of Christa McAuliffe, and she was a teacher that was going up
into space," said Caldwell, now 37 and a private pilot, in a NASA
interview. "So I started thinking, 'Wow, if a teacher can become and
astronaut, I wonder if I could too.'"
Growing up
in Arcadia, California, Caldwell routinely helped her electrician father rewire
houses and repair cars before working to obtain a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from
the University of California at Davis. That training, as well as her ongoing
interest in athletics, is welcome practice for her role as the intravehicular
spacewalk choreographer, she said.
"You've
got to think ahead, and what tools you need, and how you approach a
problem," Caldwell said. "Dad prepared me really well for that."
Since
joining NASA, Caldwell helped test and integrate Russian-built hardware and
software bound for the ISS. She served as the prime crew support astronaut for the
space station's Expedition 5 mission has also served as spacecraft communicator
for later ISS flights.
Off all the
advice she's received from veteran spaceflyers, taking time to look out the
window while in Earth orbit is one Caldwell takes to heart.
"I'm
not just going up there," she told reporters. "My family, my friends,
my professors. Everybody that's played a role and I'm going to look out that
window for them."
CAPCOM
to crewmate
A late
addition to the STS-118 mission, Drew
is Mission Specialist 5 on Endeavour's crew and will serve as sort of a
utility astronaut.
"I'm
supporting cast for this mission," he said in a NASA interview, adding that he
will help out on tasks and packing things in the right place. "It's not a very glamorous
role, but it's something that I'm very happy to be doing."
Drew, 44,
joined Endeavour's crew in late April as a replacement for ISS Expedition 15
flight engineer Clayton Anderson, who launched earlier during June's
STS-117 mission to relieve fellow NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. At the
time, he was training to serve as a shuttle spacecraft communicator, or CAPCOM,
to speak to orbiter crews for Mission Control.
"My initial
reaction was just plain shock," Drew told reporters in a preflight briefing. "I've
never heard of anybody being selected for a mission about three and a half
months out in front of a launch. After that, it was just time to get busy."
A colonel
in the U.S. Air Force and native of Washington, D.C., Drew joined NASA's
astronaut corps in July 2000. After gaining experience as a combat helicopter
pilot, he has logged 3,000 of flying time in over 30 different aircraft and has
worked in the space station branch of the Astronaut Office.
"I've just
been all over," Drew said. "My fingerprints are all over parts of space station
at this point."
Drew's
interest in space began at age six, when he watched NASA launch the Apollo 7
mission at school with his classmates in 1968. He later obtained degrees in
physics, aeronautical engineering, aerospace science and political science
during his Air Force career. But despite the long path, Drew said he isn't sure
what part of his first flight will make the biggest impression.
"Knowing
how my brain works, I won't think about that until after I've landed and
hopefully I've got a set of good memories to go reflect back on," Drew said.
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