With the last scheduled space shuttle mission slated for September 2010, a crew to staff this momentous ride has been named. The flight to the International Space Station will carry a pressurized logistics module to the station.
Veteran shuttle commander and retired Air Force Col. Steven W. Lindsey will command the eight-day mission, designated STS-133. Air Force Col. Eric A. Boe will serve as the pilot; it will be his second flight as a shuttle pilot. Mission Specialists are shuttle mission veteran Air Force Col. Benjamin Alvin Drew, Jr., and long-duration spaceflight veterans Michael R. Barratt, Army Col. Timothy L. Kopra and Nicole P. Stott.
Lindsey will be making his fifth shuttle flight. He served as the pilot of STS-87 in 1997 and STS-95 in 1998, and commanded STS-104 in 2001 and STS-121 in 2006. Lindsey was born in Arcadia, Calif., and considers Temple City, California, to be his hometown. He has a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master’s degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Lindsey currently is chief of the Astronaut Office. Long-duration spaceflight veteran and former space station commander Peggy A. Whitson has been named his successor when Lindsey transitions in October to training for his spaceflight. Whitson was a flight engineer aboard the station during Expedition 5 in 2002 and the commander of Expedition 16 in 2007 to 2008.
Boe will be making his second shuttle flight. He was the pilot of STS-126 in 2008. He was born in Miami and grew up in Atlanta. Boe has a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Drew flew as a mission specialist on STS-118 in 2007 and is currently the director of Operations at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. He was born in Washington, D.C. Drew has two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master’s degree from Embry Riddle University.
Barratt, a medical doctor, currently is on his first mission, aboard the space station as a flight engineer for Expeditions 19 and 20. He launched to the station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft March 26 and is due to return to Earth on the same Soyuz October 11. Barratt was born in Vancouver, Wash., and considers Camas, Washington, his hometown. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington, a master’s degree from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and a doctorate of medicine from Northwestern University.
Kopra just completed his first spaceflight, as a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 20. He launched July 15 on shuttle mission STS-127 and landed aboard shuttle mission STS-128 on September 11. Kopra was born in Austin, Texas. He has a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy, and master’s degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the U.S. Army War College.
Stott is in the midst of her first mission as a flight engineer aboard the station with Barratt for Expeditions 20 and 21. She launched aboard STS-128 on August 28 and is due to return at the end of STS-129, targeted for launch November 12. She was born in Albany, N.Y., and considers Clearwater, Florida, her hometown. She has a bachelor’s degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a master’s degree from the University of Central Florida.
