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GEORGE DILLER: Well, we're going now from the astronaut quarters into the suitup room.

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So tell us who we're seeing and what they're doing.

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PATRICK FORRESTER: Well, that's the commander, Steve Frick.

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He's a Navy captain and the fact that he's in there, and there's the pilot,

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Al Poindexter, also a Navy captain, means that the weather brief is over.

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While some of the other M.S.'s were getting suited up in here,

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the pilot and commander and sometimes the M.S., too, will be in there getting a weather briefing.

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There's Al giving us a wave and a thumbs up.

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This is his first flight. I know he's excited. There's Leland Melvin.

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He's on the telephone, looks like, probably saying hi to friends or family.

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This is his first flight also. Now they've been in these suits several times, obviously,

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through training, and then their actual launch suit, they've done some pressure checks and

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actual suit fits prior to today just to make sure things are as they should be.

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And then today they'll get that last check before heading out to the pad. There's Stan Love.

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This is his first flight also. We do have some new fliers.

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He's a Ph. D. in astronomy. He's from Oregon.

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He's a great guy and he'll be doing the third spacewalk while he's up there.

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There's Hans Schlegel from ESA. He's from Germany.

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Looks like he's already completed his checks and he's sitting there on cooling.

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This will be his second flight. He flew on D2 I think back in 1993 and he'll be doing two of the spacewalks.

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There's Leo Eyharts. He's a general in the French air force and this is his second flight.

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It's his first shuttle flight. He went up to Mir back in '98. And there's Rex.

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This is Rex's second flight. Matter of fact, he flew with Steve Frick, the commander.

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This is both their second flight and they flew together on

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STS-110. Rex is an Air Force colonel and he's the lead spacewalker on this mission.

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He'll be doing all three spacewalks. And here they come.

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This is actually coming out of the suitup room in crew quarters and you see,

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there Commander Steve Frick on the right. There's Al Poindexter,

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the rest of the crew coming in; this is their chance to see bye to the folks in crew quarters.

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There they are, that's all the support personnel that have taken great care of

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them over the last couple of days. And then we also saw Steve Lindsey in the blue flight suit.

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There's Brent Jett, kind of in the left rear in the coat and tie. He's the head of flight crew operations.

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And they'll head down the elevator, and once they come out the other side,

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we'll just kind of watch and let them greet the crowd out there.

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DILLER: Well, they're getting onboard the Astrovan and that's about,

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what is it, 20 minutes or so out to the pad?

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FORRESTER: It's probably about that.

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They have a police escort and you'll probably see helicopters above them with SWAT security.

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And they usually get them out there a little quicker than if you and I were driving.

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It's not a bad ride at all. They do have cooling for their suits inside the Astrovan.

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They tend to get a last drink of water on there. It's a pretty exciting ride.

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DILLER: There they go. Well, we'll pick up with them again at the launch pad and hopefully

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we'll be able to follow them some as they're on the way out there.

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