Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

STS-118: The Endeavour crew

By the Associated Press
Published August 8, 2007

Space shuttle Endeavour will have three first-time fliers and four second-time fliers. A more detailed look at the seven astronauts:

U.S. Navy Commander Scott Kelly

• Age: 43
• Hometown: Orange, N.J.
• Family: Married, two children
• Kelly was selected as an astronaut in 1996, along with his twin brother, Mark, who was a pilot on Discovery in July 2006. He flew as a pilot during his first and only shuttle flight aboard Discovery on a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. He later was NASA's director of operations in Star City, Russia, helping NASA coordinate projects with the Russian space agency.

U.S. Marine Corp. Lt. Col. Charles Hobaugh

• Age: 45
• Hometown: Bar Habor, Maine
• Family: Married, four children
• Hobaugh goes by the nickname "Scorch" but he refuses to reveal how he got it. "It's a closely held family secret," he said. "You get a nickname with stuff you're not necessarily proud of." Hobaugh was a Marine who flew combat missions in the Persian Gulf during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. NASA chose him to be an astronaut in 1996 and he flew his first shuttle flight aboard Atlantis in 2001 on a construction mission to the international space station.

Richard Mastracchio

• Age: 47
• Hometown: Waterbury, Conn.
• Family: Married, three children
• To prepare for his three spacewalks, Mastracchio has been spending a lot of time at the gym, running to build endurance and lifting weighs to develop strength. "It will be very challenging," he said. "The training physically is probably more physically challenging than the actual event, from what I understand, since this will be my first spacewalk." Mastracchio started working for a private contractor at Johnson Space Center in 1987 and joined NASA in 1990 as an engineer, working on flight software for the space shuttle and later as a flight controller. He joined the astronaut corps in 1996. His first and only mission was a 2000 flight on Atlantis to prepare the space station for the arrival of its first permanent crew.

Dr. Dafydd "Dave" Williams of the Canadian Space Agency

• Age: 53
• Hometown: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• Family: Married, two children
• As a medical doctor, it makes sense that Williams is the crew medical officer, along with Barbara Morgan. But Williams has a bigger role during the mission - he will go on three spacewalks if the mission is extended to 14 days. He was picked to be an astronaut in 1992 by the Canadian Space Agency and joined NASA's international class of mission specialists in 1995. At both agencies, he worked on space medicine projects. He flew his first and only shuttle flight aboard Columbia in 1998 during a mission focused on neuroscience research.

Barbara Morgan

• Age: 55
• Hometown: Fresno, Calif.
• Family: Married, two children
• Morgan was chosen in 1985 from thousands of applicants to be the back up to teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe. They trained together at Johnson Space Center for six months, and it was McAuliffe who was on board Challenger when it blew apart on Jan. 28, 1986. A poorly designed seal in the shuttle's solid rocket booster was blamed. Morgan returned to teaching grade school students in Idaho, but NASA asked her to stay on as the teacher-in-space designee. In 1998, the space agency asked her to become a full-fledged astronaut. She has taught at schools in the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, Ecuador and McCall, Idaho.

Tracy Caldwell

• Age: 37 but will celebrate her 38th birthday during the mission
• Hometown: Arcadia, Calif.
• Family: Single
• When she was a junior in high school, Caldwell wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Then a young teacher from New Hampshire started attracting attention because she was going to fly to space. "The world was excited about NASA and Christa McAuliffe and that's when I decided to learn more about astronauts," Caldwell said. "I looked at my list and looked at what astronauts did and decided that that was exactly what I wanted to do." She was selected for the astronaut corps in 1998. She speaks Russian as well as American Sign Language, which she learned in high school. If there is any down time during the mission, she hopes to give a video tour of the space station in sign language which could be distributed to deaf communities upon her return.

U.S. Air Force Col. Benjamin "Alvin" Drew Jr.

• Age: 44
• Hometown: Washington, D.C.
• Family: Single
• Drew had been training as a capsule communicator in Mission Control when the last-minute decision was made to put Clay Anderson on Atlantis, which flew in June. That left an open seat on Endeavour, which the first-time spaceflier was offered. "It's as if someone has handed you a winning lottery ticket," Drew said. "That's how it feels." Drew admits his tasks won't be the most dashing. He will be responsible for transferring cargo from the shuttle to the station and taking pictures. "It's not the most glamorous part of the mission, but they require a bit of time," he said. "I'm freeing up folks to focus on other things like the spacewalk." As a youngster growing up in Washington, Drew grew fascinated with space after watching the first Apollo flight in 1968. Drew is the first member of the 2000 astronaut class to get a chance to go to space.

[Last modified August 8, 2007, 02:50:49]