Jeff Wisoff
Like a lot of astronauts, Jeff Wisoff was glued to his TV tube when he caught the space bug back in 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted their feet and the American flag on the moon, and Wisoff - then a rapt 10-year-old - fixed his eyes on the night sky
Jeff Wisoff
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But it wasn't until NASA's shuttle program got off the ground in the 1980s that Wisoff - by then a laser expert - found an open door to orbit. And now, after a decade in the astronaut corps, he's carrying one of seven tickets to ride on the agency's historic 100th shuttle flight.
"I was growing up in Virginia when men walked on the moon for the first time. And I remember watching that live on TV and being very excited about it, and always thinking that would be a great thing to do," Wisoff said in a recent interview.
"It wasn't really until the shuttle program came along that there were enough seats going into space on each space ride to have an opportunity for someone with my background - which is science, laser technology in particular -- to participate."
Now a veteran of three previous shuttle flights, Wisoff said Discovery's International Space Station construction mission promises to showcase the versatility of what many consider the most remarkable piloted spacecraft ever designed by human engineers.
"I think the 100th shuttle flight is an opportunity just to reflect back on what a great vehicle the shuttle is. It's just amazing to go watch a launch and just think about how complex this machine is and how well it works," said Wisoff, one of four spacewalkers on Discovery's crew.
"The shuttle has proven itself to be a great workhorse for getting large pieces of payload to orbit. And in this case, it's going to be our taxi to take stuff to space station and help build the space station."
Spacewalking station construction work happens to be a family affair for Wisoff, 42. The Norfolk, Virginia, native is married to NASA astronaut Tamara Jernigan, who helped mount two cranes outside the outpost during a mid 1999 assembly mission.
The astro-couple never has been booked on the same shuttle flight, but they've managed to tally up some pretty impressive statistics.
All tallied, Wisoff and Jernigan have lapped the planet 1,500 times during eight shuttle flights. Their cumulative total time in orbit: 94 days, 11 hours, 57 minutes and 17 seconds.
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