Discovery's eclectic crew is poised for space

By Tariq Maliq

Managing editor

updated 3:36 p.m. ET Aug. 23, 2009

A former off-road racer, a Swedish physicist and three tweeting astronauts form just part of the eclectic crew poised to blast off Tuesday aboard NASA's space shuttle Discovery.

Discovery's six-man, one-woman crew is slated to launch on a 13-day mission to the international space station, where the astronauts will deliver vital supplies and experiments, as well as a new crew member for the orbiting laboratory.

"This is a great crew," said Discovery commander Rick Sturckow in a NASA interview. "I think from the very beginning we got off to a good start and we've maintained a good pace throughout the training ... and still manage to have fun together doing it, so I've really enjoyed training with this crew."

Sturckow and his crew plan to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:36 a.m. EDT Tuesday to begin their station supply mission. Here's a brief look at the seven astronauts flying aboard Discovery:

Racing back to space
Sturckow, 48, is no stranger to spaceflight or moving fast. A Marine Corps colonel, he's making his fourth trip to space with Discovery's flight, but got his start as a truck mechanic at age 16 and later raced off-road vehicles in Baja California while attending college.

"There are so many similarities between spaceflight and trying to set up a mission, and building and operating a race vehicle," Sturckow said in a recent interview. "So many good lessons learned in project management and leadership."

Sturckow joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1994, and flew combat missions in Operation Desert Storm before becoming a test pilot and spaceflyer. He is from Lakeside, Calif., and has two children — a 6-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter — with his wife Michele.

The drummer pilot
Sitting in the pilot seat for Discovery's flight is rookie astronaut Kevin Ford, a retired Air Force colonel and test pilot who moonlights as the drummer in the all-astronaut band Max Q.

"There's a gig here in a couple of weeks and as you can imagine, I'm not going to be able to make it," said Ford, 49, in a recent interview. A fellow NASA astronaut will play in his place. "It's a lot of fun. Our one regret is we don't get a chance to practice as much as we'd want because at any one time about half the astronauts are gone in Russia or Japan or Florida or something...or space."

A test pilot and engineer, Ford grew up on a farm in Montpelier, Ind., and joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2000. After nine years waiting for a flight, he said he's eager to feel the thrill of liftoff. Ford is married to wife Kelly and has two grown children.

Veteran astronaut, mistaken identity
Discovery's Mission Specialist 1 is veteran astronaut Patrick Forrester, a retired Army colonel making his third spaceflight with the upcoming mission. But despite his experience, some folks confuse him fellow Army astronaut Tim Kopra (currently making his first flight at the space station).

"People confuse us a lot, because we look alike," Forrester, 52, said with a laugh. "So it's going to be a lot of fun to be with Tim on orbit."

Forrester will choreograph the three spacewalks of Discovery's mission and fly the shuttle's robotic arm. He is from Springfield, Va., and initially joined NASA as an engineer before being selected as an astronaut in 1996. Forrester is married to wife Diana and has two grown sons, one of whom recently shipped off to Afghanistan as a Black Hawk pilot.

From migrant farmer to astronaut
Flying in space has been a lifelong dream for astronaut Jose Hernandez, Discovery's Mission Specialist 2, since he was 9 years old. That was when he held the antenna rabbit ears of his family's television to get the clearest picture of the Apollo astronauts walking on the moon.

"Now I kid around with my siblings that it's through osmosis that I got to be an astronaut," Hernandez, 47, told reporters in a recent briefing. "I think that was the pivotal point when I decided to become an astronaut."

Hernandez spoke only Spanish until he was 12 years old, when he learned English. He grew up in a migrant farming family and picked vegetables and fruits in California when he wasn't in school. A second grade teacher persuaded his parents to settle in Stockton, Calif., for the sake of their children's education. He was inspired in high school by NASA's first Hispanic astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz.

He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific and later a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He joined NASA as a research engineer 2001 and became an astronaut in 2004 after applying for 12 straight years.

Hernandez will serve as Discovery's flight engineer for launch and landing, and will wield robotic arms on the shuttle and space station. He is also NASA's first astronaut post bilingual updates to the microblogging Web site Twitter. He is chronicling the mission under the name: @Astro_Jose.

"I'm very excited about the flight," Hernandez said. "I feel like we've been studying for a final exam and we're at the point where we're finally ready."

Hernandez is married to wife Adela, who runs a restaurant nearby NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston called Tierra Luna Grill, which is Spanish for Earth Moon Grill. They have three daughters, ages 10, 12 and 13, and two sons, ages 6 and 15.

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