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