Commander Eileen Collins

Commander Eileen Collins was raised in Elmira, N.Y., and says she fantasized about flight from the time she used to watch sailplanes flying over her summer camp.

Before she was old enough to take lessons, she turned to books on vintage gliders and fighter planes. At age 16, she began saving money for flight school, and by 19 she had saved up $1,000 and went to the local airport for lessons.

Collins began military pilot training for the Air Force in 1978, the same year that NASA opened the shuttle program to women, and she set her sights on joining the program. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics from Syracuse University in 1978, a master's in operations research from Stanford University in 1986 and a master's in space systems management from Webster University in 1989.

NASA selected Collins to join America's Astronaut Corps in 1990, deeming her an official astronaut the following year. She has logged more than 6,280 hours in 30 different types of aircraft. More than 537 of those hours were logged in space.

A veteran of three spaceflights, she became the first woman pilot of a Space Shuttle on the first flight of the joint Russian-American Shuttle-Mir program, and later the first woman to command a Shuttle mission.

Pilot James Kelly

Pilot James Kelly says that, as a boy, he often would crack his bedroom window open at night, listening to the roar of aircraft engines take off and land in the corn fields of Burlington, Iowa. He also has powerful memories of watching Neil Armstrong first walk on the moon.

Like many 5-year-olds enamored with the early Apollo moon missions, Kelly proclaimed his destiny to become an astronaut and fly into space. Unlike most others, Kelly never wavered from that goal.

When it came time for college, a brochure with a picture of the Air Force Academy Chapel -- an architectural marvel like a myriad of fighter planes massed together, noses jutting toward the sky -- caught his attention.

Kelly received a bachelor's degree in astronautical engineering from the Academy in 1986 and a master's in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in 1996. He was selected to NASA's Astronaut Corps and reported to the Johnson Space Center in 1996.

He has logged more than 3,000 hours in more than 35 different aircraft, and in 2001 he successfully piloted the eighth Shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station -- also aboard Discovery.

Mission Specialist Charles Camarda

Mission Specialist Charles Camarda, of Queens, N.Y., says he was inspired to fly in space by the seven Mercury astronauts 40 years ago.

Camarda graduated with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1974, a master's in engineering science from George Washington University in 1980, and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1990.

He then joined NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., where he was responsible for demonstrating the viability of a heat-pipe cooled leading edge for space shuttle. He then led the High-Speed Research and Reusable Launch Vehicle programs and oversaw several test facilities such as the Thermal Structure Laboratory.

Camarda holds seven patents on various innovations, including NASA's Heat-Pipe-Cooled Sandwich Panel, named one of the top 100 technical innovations of 1983 by Industrial Research Magazine. After more than 20 years of experience in diverse Shuttle technology applications, Camarda was named a mission specialist in 1996.

Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence

When she was 10 years old, Wendy Lawrence watched men walk on the moon from her home in Southern California. The footprints they engraved on the moon's surface pushed her to leave her self-described "beach bum" lifestyle behind and be an astronaut, she says.

Following her father's footsteps as a naval aviator who flew in the Vietnam War, Lawrence earned a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981. She received her master's degree in ocean engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in 1988.

Lawrence has flown more than 1,500 hours in six different types of helicopters and has made more than 800 shipboard landings. She reported to the Johnson Space Center in the summer of 1992, where she completed a year of shuttle flight training and qualified as a mission specialist.

A veteran of three spaceflights and fully aware of the potential hazards involved, Lawrence continues her commitment. Her enthusiasm for exploration comes from her childhood attraction to Star Trek and its out-of-this-world fantasies that may one day become real.

Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi

Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi grew up in Chigasaki, a city of Kangawa, on Japan's Honshu Island. He says that at the heart of his life-long dream to fly in space was his strongest role model, his father.

Noguchi says his father taught him the value of a good education and teamwork, and Noguchi received a bachelor's degree in 1989 and a master's degree in 1991 from the University of Tokyo, both in aeronautical engineering.

Later, at Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. he worked on design aspects of intricate aerodynamic components for space flight vehicles.

Noguchi was selected in 1996 for training by the National Space Development Agency of Japan. Two months later, Noguchi flew overseas and reported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. After two years of training and evaluation, he qualified for flight assignment as mission specialist. In April 2001, Noguchi found out he was scheduled to fly in four years.

Mission Specialist Steve Robinson

Steve Robinson is an artist, musician, scientist and space explorer, whose fascination of the new and his love of flight made astronauts Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn his heroes and his father, an engineer and inventor, his guide.

At 13, he plucked aluminum pipes from a scrap metal yard and transformed a busted sprinkler system into his first flying machine - a hang glider with a 40-foot wingspan. He came to NASA and completed two student co-op tours as he went to college to study his passion.

He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical aeronautical engineering from the University of California at Davis in 1978, followed with a master's in 1985 and a doctorate in 1990, both in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Robinson started work at NASA's Ames Research Center in 1979 as a research scientist in the fields of fluid dynamics and aerodynamics. In 1990, he became Chief of the Experimental Flow Physics Branch at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

Robinson has logged more than 1,400 hours in various aircraft ranging from antique taildraggers to NASA jets. After 16 years, in 1995, Robinson was selected for astronaut training. In 1997, he flew the shuttle robot arm and the experimental Japanese robot arm, and served as a backup to the spacewalk crew. On his second flight, Robinson returned to space with his childhood hero, John Glenn on STS-95.

Mission Specialist Andy Thomas

Andrew "Andy" Thomas grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, and says he knew becoming an astronaut was a long shot. But, he knew that his education was the key to his future and tackled an ambitious academic calling.

With First Class Honors, he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Adelaide in 1973. He received his doctorate in mechanical engineering, also from the University of Adelaide, and in 1977, he came to the United States to work for Lockheed Aeronautical Systems in Marietta, Ga.

After several lead research positions, Thomas was named manager of Lockheed's Flight Sciences Division. He then moved on to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he could work closer with the space program. At JPL, he worked with several facets of spaceflight that involved studies in low gravity on NASA's KC-135 aircraft and shuttle hardware.

In 1992, Thomas was selected to join America's Astronaut Corps and completed training as a mission specialist the following year. May 19, 1996, was his first day in space. He has made three trips into space on two shuttles, Endeavour and Discovery.

Source: NASA