Leading by example

For commander Bloomfield, who was the one about a year ago to tell Ross he was assigned to the STS-110 crew, it was a no-brainer on how best to take advantage of Ross' infectious positive attitude and vast experience.

STS-110

For complete launch to landing coverage and the most up-to-date news about this assembly mission to the International Space Station click here.

Much of the success of this mission to install the first piece of the station's truss will depend on three first-time flyers, Bloomfield said. So he tasked Ross with teaching the rookies -- pilot Stephen Frick and mission specialists Morin and Rex Walheim -- those things about spaceflight that don't necessarily show up in the training manuals.

Things like how to position your body while doing certain tasks and the best way to operate certain equipment so as to avoid mistakes Ross has seen other astronauts make during previous shuttle missions.

And more importantly, how to steal moments during the day to appreciate the miracle of being in space and be filled with the wonder of how beautiful our home planet looks from 245 miles (395 kilometers) high.

"Jerry is a real blessing to have on the flight," Bloomfield said. "You would not know that Jerry has been with NASA for 20 years by spending time with him because of all the excitement and exuberance and just plain fun times he brings to the crew."

Currently there are five astronauts who share the record for six spaceflights: Ross, Musgrave, Curt Brown, Franklin Chang-Diaz -- who will get his seventh spaceflight in May -- and John Young, who has launched six times from Earth and once from the Moon during Apollo 16.

With sincere humility, Ross said he believes that his career highlights pale compared to Young's achievements.

"John Young is my hero," Ross said.

"There's nobody that will ever surpass what John Young has been able to achieve in his lifetime as an astronaut. I don't care how many times anybody ever flies in space they won't be able to outdo what he has done because of when he did them and how he did them," Ross said.

Young's exploits only serve to inspire Ross to continue on, perhaps even to an eighth spaceflight. But that's unlikely, Ross said.

"I don't know what's going to happen," Ross told SPACE.com. "My strong suspicion is that this will probably be my last flight, not because I want it to be, but because there's such a long line of people waiting to go fly."

He's right. Of the 142 people that now make up NASA's astronaut office in Houston, 62 still are waiting for their first mission -- including the three rookies on this upcoming mission of Atlantis, all of whom look up to Ross and say they appreciate learning from his experience.

"Nobody has been there and done that as much as Jerry has," Walheim said.