Seven
astronauts are gearing up for what they expect to be a grueling orbital construction mission to the International Space Station this week aboard the shuttle
Endeavour.
Veteran
shuttle commander Mark Polansky and six crewmates will blast off aboard Endeavour
early Saturday on an ambitious
mission to complete the space station's massive Japanese Kibo laboratory.
Liftoff is set for 7:17 a.m. EDT (1117 GMT) from NASA's seaside spaceport in
Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Endeavour
is poised to fly a marathon 16-day flight packed with five spacewalks and
complicated robotic arm work to install a porch-like external experiment
platform, spare space station parts and perform maintenance work.
"It's
complex, it's challenging, it's long," Polansky said of the mission. "It's
going to be a really complicated choreography."
As planned,
the mission will tie the record for longest shuttle flight to the station. It
will also mark the first time 13 people have lived aboard the outpost at the
same time since the station doubled its population to full six-person
crew earlier this month.
Here is a
look at Endeavour's six-man, one-woman crew for the upcoming STS-127 mission to
the space station:
Veteran
in command
Leading
Endeavour's crew is Polansky, 53, a two-time shuttle flyer making his third
trip to the space station. But the mission is Polansky's first foray into the
online micro-blogging Web site Twitter, where he has been detailing the mission
under the handle @Astro_127.
"I really
want people in every walk of life to understand that NASA exists," said
Polansky, who has more than 17,800 followers and is the second NASA astronaut
to use the social networking tool on a mission.
A veteran
U.S. Air Force test pilot from Edison, N.J., Polansky joined NASA's astronaut
corps in 1996 and is making his second trip as commander. He is married to wife
Lisa and has a 4-year-old daughter and a young son who will turn 2 years old
during the upcoming spaceflight.
During
Endeavour's flight, Polansky will keep close tabs on his crew to make sure
everyone rests between spacewalks and challenging robotic operations.
"You also
get a little chronic fatigue. It's easy to go ahead and not realize how tired
you are," Polansky said. "I'll be the mother hen and watch over things like
that."
Pilot's
view on risk
Endeavour's
pilot is U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Doug Hurley, 42, who will begin the first
spaceflight of his astronaut career when the shuttle
blasts off.
A test
pilot from Apalachin, N.Y., Hurley joined NASA's astronaut ranks in 2000 and
has a unique view on the risks of human spaceflight. He was the last person to
see the seven astronauts of the shuttle Columbia's STS-107 mission before they
launched into space on their ill-fated 2003 flight that ended tragedy during
re-entry.
"Being the
last person to see them in person, it took a while for me to work through that
and what I was doing... it's a tough deal to lose seven friends in an instant,"
Hurley told SPACE.com. "Spaceflight's not routine, there's significant
risk. But there's also significant reward and I'm comfortable with the risk."
Hurley said
he's looking forward to looking out Endeavour's windows at Earth and he
apparently likes to go fast. His NASA biography lists watching "as many NASCAR
races as possible" as one of his chief interests
"I don't
know what it was, if it was the cars or just the spectacle," Hurley said of the
first time he went to a race. "But I was immediately hooked."
Astronaut 500
Rookie
astronaut Chris Cassidy, a veteran U.S. Navy SEAL, will be pulling double duty
during Endeavour's flight. Not only is the Navy commander part of the shuttle's
four-man spacewalking team, he is also slated to become the 500th person in
history to reach space once the shuttle launches.
"I'm
honored to have a position, whether it's 499, 500 or 501," Cassidy, 39, said in
an interview. But he and his crew have been training so hard, they were unaware
of the space history milestone, he added.
Cassidy
grew up in York, Maine, and spent 10 years as a Navy SEAL. He joined NASA's
astronaut corps in 2004, on his second try, as part of the agency's most recent
class. He will serve as Mission Specialist 1 and perform three spacewalks
during the upcoming mission.
"That whole
first 8 1/2 minutes, I just can't wait," Cassidy said of the initial launch
into space. He and wife Julie have three children, two daughters - ages 14 and
11 - and a 10-year-old son. His younger daughter will turn 12 the day before
launch, Cassidy said.
Canadian's
return to orbit
Canadian
Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette, 45, is the only non-American on
Endeavour's crew and the mission's robotic arm expert, which is fitting since
the main robotic arms on both the shuttle and the International Space Station
were built by her home country. She first flew in space during a 1999 NASA
shuttle mission and is eager to see how she'll react in orbit again.
"It's been
10 years since I've been in space," Payette said in a recent briefing. "I
really wonder if my brain will remember what it's like to return to
weightlessness."
As Mission
Specialist 2, Payette will oversee some of the most challenging robotic arm
operations, which include seven different handoffs of massive components
between from one arm to another. She will also serve as the mission's flight
engineer to aid Endeavour's commander and pilot during launch and landing.
A native of
Montreal, Quebec, Payette is married to husband Billie Flynn and has two sons,
ages 15 and 4, though her youngest will turn 5 during the spaceflight.
She joined Canada's
astronaut corps in 1992 and will join another Canadian astronaut, Robert
Thirsk, in space after launching. Thirsk is part of the station's six-man crew.
It will be first time two Canadians have been in space at the same time, with a
third Canadian citizen - space tourist Guy Laliberte - slated to launch later
this year.
"It does
touch people and it is part of their lives," Payette said of Canada's space
efforts. She plans to take some traditional cookies shaped like maple leafs and
other national treats to mark the mission, she added.
Astronaut
doctor
After years
helping others cope with the medical
effects of spaceflight, Endeavour astronaut Tom Marshburn is eager to
experience them for himself.
"I've followed
people flying in space for 15 years now, and to be able to experience some of
those things ... I just can't wait to try it out and see how it works,"
Marshburn, 48, told SPACE.com.
A former
emergency room doctor and NASA flight surgeon, Marshburn is Endeavour's Mission
Specialist 3 and will perform three spacewalks during the flight. In addition
to his medical degree, Marshburn holds degrees in physics and engineering physics
and hoped from a young age to find a place at NASA.
"It was a
little bit late in high school, and I thought, 'Boy, I'd love to work for NASA.
I'd love to build rockets.' That's what I wanted to do, build spaceships,"
Marshburn has said. "I never thought I could be an astronaut actually but I
wanted to work for NASA."
Marshburn
grew up in Statesville, N.C., and once backpacked from Canada to Mexico along
the Pacific Crest Trail. He joined NASA as a flight surgeon in 1994 and was
selected to be an astronaut in 2004. Marshburn is married to wife Ann and has a
6-year-daughter.
The
spacewalk guru
The
undisputed veteran of Endeavour's crew is also the shuttle's spacewalking chief
- astronaut Dave Wolf - who will make his fourth trek in to space during the
upcoming flight. In addition to two shuttle flights, Wolf also spent 128 days
living aboard Russia's former Space Station Mir.
"I really
feel like I'm going home to space," Wolf, 52, told reporters recently.
A veteran
of four spacewalks, Wolf will serve as Mission Specialist 4 and the lead
spacewalker during Endeavour's tricky
construction flight. He will perform three spacewalks himself and
choreograph the others after years of serving as chief of the spacewalking
branch at NASA's Astronaut Office.
Wolf is
from Indianapolis, Ind., and joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1990. He is a medical
doctor and engineer, as well as a retired Air National Guardsman with a passion
for acrobatic flying (he rebuilt his own plane) and recently built a motorcycle
from scratch.
A penchant
for tinkering is vital for astronauts tackling the "wall of spacewalks," more
than 120 so far, to build the space station over more than 10 years, Wolf said.
"The wall
was really hard, but in fact we made it...we got over it," said Wolf. "We have a
lot of [spacewalking work] yet to go, we just know how to deal with it better."
Space
station or bust
Rounding
out Endeavour's crew is U.S. Army Col. Tim Kopra, a 45-year-old test pilot
making his first trip into space. While Kopra will begin Endeavour's Mission
Specialist 5, his true home is the station, where he plans to spend months
living and working in space.
"I'm just
really excited about it," Kopra said in an interview, adding that being an astronaut
was on his childhood short list of lifetime goals. "I really couldn't be
happier."
Kopra grew
up in Austin, Texas, and has two children - a daughter, 13, and son, 12, - with
his wife Dawn. He joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2000 and will perform one
spacewalk while Endeavour is docked at the station.
As a NASA
flight engineer, Kopra will replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata as part of
the station's first full six-person crew. Wakata is Japan's first long-term
space resident and has lived aboard the station since March. He will return to
Earth aboard Endeavour while Kopra will ride another shuttle home in August.
"It'll be a
little more of a personal place to work because there's more interaction with
people," Kopra said of the larger staffed station. "We have a lot of space, but
it needs to be carefully choreographed so that it works out."
SPACE.com
will provide complete coverage of Endeavour's STS-127 mission to the
International Space Station with Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz and Senior Editor
Tariq Malik in New York. Click here
for mission updates and a link to NASA TV.
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