Endeavour crew mixes experience, excitement

Station’s strong-“arm” man
Spacewalker-to-be Robert Behnken, 37, is NASA's youngest male astronaut making his first spaceflight on Endeavour's mission. He will participate in three of the mission's five spacewalks as well as wield the station's robotic arm during the flight.

"I thought I would be more nervous about the flight," said Behnken, a U.S. Air Force major with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, in a NASA interview as he thanked his instructors. "But the biggest feeling I have is just that sense of all the things that we need to pack into our heads."

A native of St. Ann, Mo., Behnken said he is looking forward to spotting his hometown from space, as well as hunting for the many astronaut training sites located in the ISS partner nations.

Behnken is engaged to be married, and logged over 1,000 flight hours in more than 25 different aircraft types as a USAF flight test engineer.

Spacewalker debut
U.S. Navy Capt. Mike Foreman, 50, will also shed his rookie astronaut status when he launches aboard Endeavour. He is set to perform three of the flight's five spacewalks and will help assemble the Dextre robot.

"That'll be a success if we get that thing together," Foreman, a native of Wadsworth, Ohio, said of the many-piece automaton. "It reminds me of being a dad on Christmas Eve, you know, opening up the presents and putting them together for your son or daughter and wondering what you got yourself into."

He applied eight times to be a Navy test pilot, then seven more times to join the astronaut corps before he was selected in 1998.

"I was eight when I decided to be an astronaut, about 41 when I finally got selected and now I'm 50 and going on my first mission," Foreman said. "Keep the target in front of you."

A veteran Navy aviator, Foreman served as the technical lead for NASA's advanced orbiter cockpit project and logged more than 5,000 hours in over 50 different aircraft. He and his wife, Lorrie, have two sons, ages 23 and 19, and a daughter, 15.

Station’s newest tenant
Rounding out Endeavour's crew is first-time flier Garrett Reisman, who is taking a one-way trip to the space station to join the orbiting laboratory's Expedition 16 crew. He will relieve French astronaut Leopold Eyharts aboard the station and perform one of the STS-123 spacewalks.

"For me, it's kind of like playing the Super Bowl and then going about with the regular season for the next couple of months," said Reisman, 40. "It's just been a wonderful experience."

Hailing from Parsippany, N.J., Reisman is a mechanical engineer and joined NASA's spaceflying ranks in 1998. He will spend about two months on the ISS and join the outpost's incoming Expedition 17 crew in April before returning aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery in early June.

Tucked among his belongings aboard Endeavour will be a personal token of a childhood friend who died during the World Trade Center attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, Reisman said.

"I contacted his family, who I haven't spoken to in decades ... and they gave me a personal effect of his that I could take along as a remembrance," he added.

Reisman said he, his wife, Simone, and their cat Fuzzy are looking forward to his coming spaceflight. His wife, he added, is an oceanographer, avid diver and a private pilot.

"She would be strapping herself into the space shuttle right next to be given half a chance," said Reisman. "So she understands what this is all about and she's very excited about it too."

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