GEORGE DILLER: Well, we're going now from the astronaut quarters into the suitup room.
So tell us who we're seeing and what they're doing.
PATRICK FORRESTER: Well, that's the commander, Steve Frick.
He's a Navy captain and the fact that he's in there, and there's the pilot,
Al Poindexter, also a Navy captain, means that the weather brief is over.
While some of the other M.S.'s were getting suited up in here,
the pilot and commander and sometimes the M.S., too, will be in there getting a weather briefing.
There's Al giving us a wave and a thumbs up.
This is his first flight. I know he's excited. There's Leland Melvin.
He's on the telephone, looks like, probably saying hi to friends or family.
This is his first flight also. Now they've been in these suits several times, obviously,
through training, and then their actual launch suit, they've done some pressure checks and
actual suit fits prior to today just to make sure things are as they should be.
And then today they'll get that last check before heading out to the pad. There's Stan Love.
This is his first flight also. We do have some new fliers.
He's a Ph. D. in astronomy. He's from Oregon.
He's a great guy and he'll be doing the third spacewalk while he's up there.
There's Hans Schlegel from ESA. He's from Germany.
Looks like he's already completed his checks and he's sitting there on cooling.
This will be his second flight. He flew on D2 I think back in 1993 and he'll be doing two of the spacewalks.
There's Leo Eyharts. He's a general in the French air force and this is his second flight.
It's his first shuttle flight. He went up to Mir back in '98. And there's Rex.
This is Rex's second flight. Matter of fact, he flew with Steve Frick, the commander.
This is both their second flight and they flew together on
STS-110. Rex is an Air Force colonel and he's the lead spacewalker on this mission.
He'll be doing all three spacewalks. And here they come.
This is actually coming out of the suitup room in crew quarters and you see,
there Commander Steve Frick on the right. There's Al Poindexter,
the rest of the crew coming in; this is their chance to see bye to the folks in crew quarters.
There they are, that's all the support personnel that have taken great care of
them over the last couple of days. And then we also saw Steve Lindsey in the blue flight suit.
There's Brent Jett, kind of in the left rear in the coat and tie. He's the head of flight crew operations.
And they'll head down the elevator, and once they come out the other side,
we'll just kind of watch and let them greet the crowd out there.
DILLER: Well, they're getting onboard the Astrovan and that's about,
what is it, 20 minutes or so out to the pad?
FORRESTER: It's probably about that.
They have a police escort and you'll probably see helicopters above them with SWAT security.
And they usually get them out there a little quicker than if you and I were driving.
It's not a bad ride at all. They do have cooling for their suits inside the Astrovan.
They tend to get a last drink of water on there. It's a pretty exciting ride.
DILLER: There they go. Well, we'll pick up with them again at the launch pad and hopefully
we'll be able to follow them some as they're on the way out there.