by Ray Oyung

September 28, 1998

Working with astronauts is quite an experience. These folks are required to apply for positions in the astronaut program. For an example of the type of people in the astronaut program, I'll give you a brief description of the crew for this flight. For a full description of these exceptional individuals, click on this link: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/#CURRENT

Curt Brown is a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force and is also the Mission Commander in charge of all aspects of shuttle operations from launch to landing.

Steve Lindsey is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force and is assigned the job of pilot for this mission.

Steve Robinson is the payload commander in charge of all aspects of the contents in the shuttle bay including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, and experiments to investigate various aspects of life science during space flight. This includes learning more about sleep and the aging process.

Scott Parazynski is an emergency room doctor by trade and will be the Flight Engineer for this mission. He was also part of the United States Development Luge Team and was ranked among the top 10 competitors in the nation during the 1988 Olympic Trials

Chiaki Mukai is one of the payload specialists for this mission who will be a part of the team doing the life science research. Chiaki is the first Japanese woman in space from the National Space Development Agency in Japan (NASDA). She is also a certified cardiovascular surgeon and professor.

Pedro Duque is a member of the European Space Agency and will act as mission specialist. This will be his first experience in space.

John Glenn is currently a Senator representing the state of Ohio. John is also a retired US Marine Corp Colonel with many achievements from service during World War II and the Korean conflict. He piloted the first transcontinental flight from Los Angeles to New York that averaged supersonic speed; and piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States.

From this brief description you can see the international diversity in this crew's background, skill, and breadth of knowledge. They are all members of a team working together to fulfill a mission in an amazing yet stressful environment. The extensive training provide them the necessary skills to complete their tasks in a safe and efficient manner.

You might think only super people can be astronauts, but what it takes is a good academic foundation. Take in all you can in school and don't be afraid to ask questions. These individuals I've described above are doing what they want to do, because they remember what they learned in school. They were motivated and kept a positive attitude when facing challenges. They believed in themselves and you can too.

One of the astronauts performing malfunction procedures with a device used to measure core body temperature. Oral temperature using a thermometer typically found in the medicine cabinet doesn't give scientists the most accurate data they need for body temperature. The brown box on the left side of the table in this picture stores the data gathered from a pill that the astronaut swallows! This pill (not shown) contains a transmitter that sends a signal to the brown box which collects and stores the temperature data.

Work can be hard, but it can be loads of fun too...and sometimes you get a chance to make friends with the most interesting folks...