A former off-road racer, a Swedish
physicist and three tweeting astronauts form just part of the eclectic crew
poised to blast off Tuesday aboard NASA's space shuttle Discovery.
Discovery's six-man, one-woman crew
is slated to launch on a 13-day
mission to the International Space Station, where they astronauts will deliver vital
supplies and experiments, as well as a new crewmember for the orbiting
laboratory.
"This is a great crew," said
Discovery commander Rick Sturckow in a NASA interview. "I think from the very
beginning we got off to a good start and we've maintained a good pace
throughout the training ... and still manage to have fun together doing it, so
I've really enjoyed training with this crew."
Sturckow and his crew plan
to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:36 a.m. EDT
(0536 GMT) Tuesday to begin their station supply mission. Here's a brief look
at the seven astronauts flying aboard Discovery:
Racing back to space
Sturckow, 48, is no stranger to
spaceflight or moving fast. A Marine Corps colonel, he's making his fourth trip
to space with Discovery's flight, but got his start as a truck mechanic at age
16 and later raced off-road vehicles in Baja California while attending
college.
"There are so many similarities
between spaceflight and trying to set up a mission, and building and operating
a race vehicle," Sturckow said in a recent interview. "So many good lessons learned
in project management and leadership."
Sturckow joined NASA's astronaut
corps in 1994, and flew combat missions in Operation Desert Storm before becoming a test
pilot and spaceflyer. He is from Lakeside, Calif., and has two children - a 6-year-old son and
an 8-year-old daughter - with his wife Michele.
The drummer pilot
Sitting in the pilot seat for
Discovery's flight is rookie astronaut Kevin Ford, a retired Air Force colonel
and test pilot who moonlights as the drummer in the all-astronaut band Max Q.
"There's a gig here in a couple of
weeks and as you can imagine, I'm not going to be able to make it," said Ford,
49, in a recent interview. A fellow NASA astronaut will play in his
place. "It's a lot of fun. Our one regret is we don't get a chance to practice
as much as we'd want because at any one time about half the astronauts are gone
in Russia or Japan or Florida or something...or space."
A test pilot and engineer, Ford grew
up on a farm in Montpelier, Ind., and joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2000.
After nine years waiting for a flight, he said he's eager to feel the thrill of
liftoff. Ford is married to wife Kelly and has two grown children.
Veteran astronaut, mistaken identity
Discovery's Mission Specialist 1 is
veteran astronaut Patrick Forrester, a retired Army colonel making his third
spaceflight with the upcoming mission. But despite his experience, some folks
confuse him fellow Army astronaut Tim Kopra (currently making his first flight
at the space station).
"People confuse us a lot, because we
look alike," Forrester, 52, said with a laugh. "So it's going to be a lot of
fun to be with Tim on orbit."
Forrester will choreograph the
three spacewalks of Discovery's mission and fly the shuttle's robotic arm.
He is from Springfield, Va., and initially joined NASA as an engineer before
being selected as an astronaut in 1996. Forrester is married to wife Diana and
has two grown sons, one of whom recently shipped off to Afghanistan as a Black
Hawk pilot.
From migrant farmer to astronaut
Flying in space has been a lifelong
dream for astronaut Jose Hernandez, Discovery's Mission Specialist 2, since he
was 9 years old. That was when he held the antenna rabbit ears of his family's
television to get the clearest picture of the Apollo astronauts walking on the
moon.
"Now I kid around with my siblings
that it's through osmosis that I got to be an astronaut," Hernandez, 47, told
reporters in a recent briefing. "I think that was the pivotal point when I
decided to become an astronaut."
Hernandez spoke only Spanish until
he was 12 years old, when he learned English. He grew up in a migrant farming
family and picked vegetables and fruits in California when he wasn't in school.
A second grade teacher persuaded his parents to settle in Stockton, Calif., for the sake of their children's education. He was inspired in high school by NASA's first Hispanic astronaut
Franklin Chang-Diaz.
He earned a bachelor's degree in
electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific and later a master's
degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California
at Santa Barbara. He joined NASA as a research engineer 2001 and became
an astronaut in 2004 after applying for 12 straight years.
Hernandez will serve as Discovery's
flight engineer for launch and landing, and will wield robotic arms on the
shuttle and space station. He is also NASA's first astronaut post bilingual
updates to the microblogging
Web site Twitter. He is chronicling the mission under the name:
@Astro_Jose.
"I'm very excited about the flight,"
Hernandez said. "I feel like we've been studying for a final exam and we're at
the point where we're finally ready."
Hernandez is married to wife Adela,
who runs a restaurant nearby NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston called
Tierra Luna Grill, which is Spanish for Earth Moon Grill. They have three
daughters, ages 10, 12 and 13, and two sons, ages 6 and 15. Visit SPACE.com
Sunday for an in-depth look into Hernandez's path to space.
Spacewalking chief
Leading the three spacewalks for
Discovery's mission is veteran astronaut Danny Olivas, Mission Specialist 3,
who is making his second shuttle flight.
During his first flight, which was
also with Sturckow and Forrester in 2007, Olivas performed surgery on a shuttle
insulation blanket to staple and sew it down, making sure it was secure. On
this flight, he'll watch over the installation of new science experiments,
vital space station maintenance and one big chore - replacing a huge tank of
ammonia coolant that is as massive as a small car.
"The biggest challenge to a
spacewalker is not what we know, it's what we don't know," Olivas, 43, said in
an interview. He said he's looking forward to helping Discovery's rookie
spaceflyers find their space legs for the first time.
Olivas grew up in El Paso, Texas,
and has a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He joined NASA's astronaut ranks
in 1998. He and wife Marie have five children; two daughters ages 6 and 14, and
three sons ages 8, 10 and 12.
Pride of Sweden
Swedish physicist Christer
Fuglesang, Discovery's Mission Specialist 4, is the only Swede to fly in space
and is carrying his country's pride with him as he makes his second
spaceflight. He has a doctorate in engineering particle physics and is former
Swedish Frisbee national champion.
"I'm very happy that people are
following the space program in Sweden and very happy to be their connection,"
said Fuglesang, 52, who represents Sweden and the European Space Agency on
Discovery's crew. He is a veteran spacewalker who will participate in two of
the mission's spacewalks.
Fuglesang
has been writing an online newsletter about his mission to reach out to the
Swedish public and is also posting updates on Twitter in Swedish and
English. He is tweeting under the name: @CFuglesang.
On his first spaceflight, Fuglesang
set a new record for the longest Frisbee toss (20 seconds) but he's leaving his
beloved discs at home for this mission and plans to play chess against the
Swedish public instead.
Fuglesang is from Stockholm, Sweden,
and joined Europe's cadre of astronauts in 1992. He and wife Elisabeth have two
grown daughters and a 14-year-old son.
Next stop: Space station
Rounding out Discovery's crew is
first-time spaceflyer Nicole Stott, who will replace NASA astronaut Tim Kopra
as a member of the station's six-person crew. Kopra will return to Earth after
more than a month in space when Discovery lands on Sept. 6.
Stott, 46, is not the first woman to
join a space station crew, but she will make history of a sort as the first
mother to take up long-term residence aboard the space station. She and her
husband have a 7-year-old son.
"For me and my family, regardless of
whether I the first mother up there or not, we have come up with our ways of
keeping everyone engaged and wanting to go on with the mission," Stott told
SPACE.com.
Stott plans to spend at least three
months living and working aboard the station as part of its Expedition 20 and
21 crews. She will participate in one of the three spacewalks for Discovery's
crew and is due return home on NASA's next shuttle mission in November.
Stott grew up in Clearwater, Fla.,
and originally joined NASA as a shuttle operations engineer in 1988 before
being selected as an astronaut in 2000. Once she arrives at the space
station, Stott will begin using Twitter to update the public under the name
@Astro_Nicole. She is also writing about her mission on a NASA blog:
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/1831.
SPACE.com will provide complete
coverage of Discovery's STS-128 mission to the International Space Station with
Managing Editor Tariq Malik and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz. Click here for shuttle mission
updates and a link to NASA TV.
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