A Look At Endeavour’s 7 Astronauts

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL. (AP) – The seven astronauts who make up the crew of space shuttle Endeavour have been fitted together and then rearranged repeatedly since they were first selected in December 2002.

Two astronauts who were part of the original six, including the now-infamous Lisa Nowak, were reassigned. Then Richard Mastracchio was pulled from another crew to join the Endeavour team. Both Sunita Williams and Clay Anderson, at different times, were supposed to hitch rides with the Endeavour group for stays at the international space station, but both ended up going on earlier shuttle flights. Alvin Drew was added to the crew just a few months before the planned launch to replace Anderson.

“It has changed significantly,” commander Scott Kelly said of his team. Endeavour has three first-time fliers and four second-time fliers. Three were from the class of 1996, two from the class of 1998. Drew is the first astronaut to fly from the class of 2000. A more detailed look at the seven flying aboard Endeavour:

– 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.

Two other members of Endeavour’s crew, Charles Hobaugh and Rick Mastracchio, also were in that class. Kelly earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the State University of New York Maritime College and a master’s in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee.

Kelly received a commission in 1987 and was designated a naval aviator two years later. After making several overseas deployments, he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and then worked as a test pilot. 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 graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned by the U.S. Marine Corps in 1984.

He was designated a naval aviator in 1987 and later flew combat missions in the Persian Gulf during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He graduated from Naval Test Pilot School in 1992 and two years later became an instructor there. 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. Hobaugh was the astronaut in Mission Control who talked to the crew when space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry in 2003, killing seven astronauts.

He got no reply during the shuttle’s doomed descent when he kept asking, ‘Comm check.’ “It was, of course, a devastating loss at the time,” Hobaugh said recently. “But we all understand the risks. We all accept the risks.”

– 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.”

It also will the first for his partner on the first and second spacewalks, Dave Williams, and only the second spacewalk for his partner on the third walk, space station crew member Clay Anderson. Mastracchio earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Connecticut, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s in physical science from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

He 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.

Two of those will be with Mastracchio but one will be with Anderson, who has been at the space station since June. Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in physiology, a medical degree with a master of surgery from McGill University. He became an emergency physician in 1988 and has since worked as a medical director in the private sector and a lecturer at the University of Toronto and McGill.

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. Between 1998 and 2002, he was the director of space and life sciences at Johnson Space Center, becoming the first non-American to hold a senior management job at NASA. In 2001, he also was a deputy associate administrator for crew health and safety in the Office of Space Flight at NASA headquarters in Washington.

– Barbara Morgan Age: 55 Hometown: Fresno, Calif. Family: Married, two children Morgan has waited 22 years to go to space. She 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 for the disaster which killed McAuliffe and six astronauts. After the Challenger accident, 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. Morgan earned a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Stanford University and received a teaching credential from the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, Calif.

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 with her life so she made a list of thing she liked: science, machine work, running track, cheerleading, working with tools and learning languages. Nothing stood out as a career.

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.” Caldwell earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from California State University at Fullerton, where she was a sprinter and long jumper on the track team, and later received a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California at Davis.

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.

He earned bachelor’s degrees in astronautical engineering and physics from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a master’s degree in aerospace science from Embry Riddle University and a master’s in strategic studies in political science from the U.S. Air Force Air University. He was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force in 1984 and flew combat missions in Operations Just Cause, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Drew is the first member of the 2000 astronaut class to get a chance to go to space.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)