The six-man crew of the space shuttle Atlantis, which blasted
off on Monday, includes four test pilots, an orthopaedic surgeon
and a former NFL football player. They are scheduled to spend a
week at the orbiting International Space Station delivering spare
parts and installing gear during three spacewalks.
Following is a look at the crew:
- Charles Hobaugh, 48, of Bar Harbor, Maine, is the Atlantis commander and a colonel in the US Marine Corps. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Hobaugh has logged more than 5,000 hours of flying time in 40 different aircraft. Married with four children, Hobaugh joined the astronaut corps in 1996 and has made two previous space flights as the pilot.
- Barry "Butch" Wilmore, 46, of Mt Juliet, Tennessee, serves as the Atlantis pilot. A captain in the US Navy, Wilmore holds degrees in electrical engineering from Tennessee Technological University. He has more than 5,900 hours of flight time. Selected as an astronaut in 2000, Wilmore, who is married, is making his first spaceflight.
- Leland Melvin, 45, of Lynchburg, Virginia, is a former National Football League player with the Detroit Lions who studied chemistry and materials science engineering at the University of Richmond and the University of Virginia. Melvin joined the astronaut corps in 1998, though he had worked for NASA since 1989 as a fiber-optics researcher at the Langley Research Center. Melvin is making his second spaceflight.
- Randolph "Randy" Bresnik, 42, of Santa Monica, California, is a lieutenant colonel in the US Marine Corps who holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Citadel and a master's in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee. Bresnik has logged more than 4,500 hours in 79 types of aircraft. Married with one child, Bresnik joined NASA in 2004 and is making his first spaceflight. He serves as Atlantis flight engineer and one of the crew's three spacewalkers.
- Michael Foreman, 52, of Columbus, Ohio, is a retired US Navy captain and Atlantis' lead spacewalker. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Foreman has logged more than 5,000 hours in 50 different aircraft. Married with three children, Foreman joined NASA in 1998 and has made one previous spaceflight.
- Robert Satcher, 44, of Hampton, Virginia, is an orthopaedic surgeon who earned his medical degree from Harvard University. He served as an assistant professor and researcher at Northwestern University, specializing in biomedical engineering. Selected as an astronaut in 2004, Satcher, who is married with two children, is making his first spaceflight. He is one of the crew's three spacewalkers.
