WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:05.000 NARRATOR: The seven-person crew of Space Shuttle Discovery is helping to 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:10.000 prepare the International Space Station to maximize its power and its potential. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:18.000 Mark Polansky is on his second space flight. His first mission was STS-98, an ISS assembly mission in 2001, 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:23.000 but this mission is his first in a new role: commander of the space shuttle. While growing up in New Jersey, 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:29.000 he was fascinated by television coverage of space missions and had a notion he wanted to be an astronaut. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:34.000 A history lesson of sorts in college helped motivate him even further. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:41.000 POLANSKY: I happened to go by chance to Perdue University, which boasts the first and last men to walk 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:49.000 on the moon -- Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan -- as alums. I got to meet Gene Cernan during a visit at the dorm 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:54.000 I was at, and it got me thinking about, you know, this is something that a guy could do. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.000 NARRATOR: Pilot Bill Oefelein is making his first space flight. Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:03.000 Oefelein developed a love of the outdoors. In a way, he credits the lack 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.000 of roads there with putting him on the path to NASA. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:12.000 BILL OEFELEIN: It all became apparent to me the best way to get out and do some of the exploring is by flying airplanes. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:20.000 So I worked hard and got a pilot's license and got a float plane rating, and as I got older, 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 I started thinking, well, maybe somebody will actually pay me to fly airplanes for them. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:27.000 NARRATOR: So after earning a bachelor's in electrical engineering from Oregon State University, 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:34.000 Oefelein became a naval aviator, making deployments to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and to the Persian Gulf. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:40.000 Then after spending some time as a test pilot, he applied and was chosen for astronaut training in 1998. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:48.000 His duties at NASA have included working as a capsule communicator, or CAPCOM, on several missons. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Nicholas Patrick was born and raised in the United Kingdom. Although there are many things 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:58.000 he wanted to be while growing up, seeing the Apollo 11 moon landing had the biggest impact. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.000 The former private pilot and flight instructor says experiences like the 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:08.000 NASA underwater mission he was part of in 2004 have helped prepare him for his first space flight. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 NICHOLAS PATRICK: The great thing about Aquarius is, it's real, not a simulation. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.000 When you go down there, you're responsible for your own safety and nature 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:22.000 intervenes with all of your mission objectives. I think that's what makes it most like a space flight. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:27.000 NARRATOR: Bob Curbeam is a veteran of two space flights and three spacewalks. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.000 The native of Baltimore says becoming an astronaut wasn't really his goal. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:36.000 BOB CURBEAM: I was always interested in spacecraft or aircraft, thought I'd be a spacecraft or an aircraft designer. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 Grew up being a big fan of Wernher von Braun, but never really thought I'd be an operator. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:43.000 I thought I'd be a design kind of guy. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:48.000 NARRATOR: But after earning an aerospace engineering degree from the Naval Academy in 1984, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Curbeam transitioned to a career as a Navy fighter pilot. He came to NASA in 1995. A few years later, 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.000 he made his first space flight on STS-85, a research mission. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.000 He went to the space station on his next flight with Polansky on STS-98. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:10.000 European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang is making his first space flight. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.000 You could say that everyone in his native Sweden is making it with him, 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.000 since no other native of Sweden has been to space before. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:23.000 CHRISTER FUGLESANG: I think and I hope that will kind of mean a lot to Sweden. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:33.000 Also, I think people will see the joy with space adventure and the interest in space. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:39.000 NARRATOR: Chicago native Joan Higginbotham will operate the station robotic arm on the mission. Working at NASA, 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:44.000 let alone becoming an astronaut, wasn't part of her initial plan. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.000 JOAN HIGGINBOTHAM: When we go back to the moon and on to Mars, I don't think those operations are going 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:52.000 to be any less complex than the ones that we are doing now, so it's essential 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:57.000 for us to master these skills now, for us to continue with our exploration. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:06.000 NARRATOR: Suni Williams is a commander in the United States Navy. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:12.000 She remembers the excitement of the first moon landing and the thinking that it'd be cool to be an astronaut. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:16.000 SUNI WILLIAMS: I am half Indian and I've got a, I'm sure a group of Indian 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:23.000 people who are looking forward to seeing the second Indian, person of Indian origin flying up in space. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:28.000 So it's nice to know that everybody brings along with them a group of people 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:34.000 from all over the world that get interested in space. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:39.000