STS-114 Discovery Bon Voyage

From left, STS-114 astronauts Steve Robinson, Jim Kelly, Andy Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, Charlie Camarda, Eileen Collins and Soichi Noguchi. . Photo credit: NASA.

Commander Eileen Collins
Col. Eileen Collins, USAF (Ret.) joined the Astronaut Corps in 1990, after an impressive resume obsessed with flight. She was the first female Pilot Trainer in the Air Force and one of the first to graduate Test Pilot school. She has logged 537 hours in space, including the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle, the first astronaut to achieve pregnancy and the first woman to command the shuttle.

"We're a nation of explorers. We are the kind of people who want to go out and learn new things, and I would say take risks, but take calculated risks that are studied and understood."

STS-114 Pilot James Kelly
James Kelly was selected to NASA's Astronaut Corps and reported to the Johnson Space Center in 1996.
With a proven flight track record, logging more than 3,000 hours in more than 35 different aircraft, Kelly qualified to pilot a Space Shuttle flight crew. In 2001, he successfully piloted the eighth Shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station aboard Discovery,

"If you look through history, you see that the explorers and the countries that were doing the exploring, were the ones that were making the world a better place to live in," he said. "That's still true."

Mission Specialist Charles Camarda
After work as a research scientist at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. 1974, "Charlie" Camarda went to work for NASA. Camarda holds seven patents on various innovations, including NASA's Heat-Pipe-Cooled Sandwich Panel, named one of the top 100 technical innovations of 1983 by Industrial Research Magazine. Camarda was named a mission specialist in 1996.

"Spaceflight will always be an experiment; it will never be an operational, routine venture, and we need to learn from every flight," Camarda said. "We need to improve and make sure that we're ever-vigilant that we can make this vehicle as robust and as safe as we possibly can."

Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence
Following her father's footsteps as a naval aviator who flew in the Vietnam War, Lawrence went on to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating with a bachelor's degree in ocean engineering in 1981. She later received her master's degree in ocean engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in 1988.
Deemed a naval aviator in 1982, Lawrence has flown more than 1,500 hours in six different types of helicopters and has made more than 800 shipboard landings
In the summer of 1992, she completed a year of flight training and qualified as a mission specialist. She is a veteran of three spaceflights

"My mother's father flew in World War II," she said. "He was shot down over the Philippines and, fortunately, was rescued. My father was shot down over Vietnam and didn't return until six years later. So, my family understands the risks."

Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi
Noguchi received a bachelor's degree in 1989 and a master's degree in 1991, both in aeronautical engineering from the University of Tokyo.
He then joined Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., where he worked on the design aspects of intricate aerodynamic components for vehicles intended for space flight.
Noguchi was selected in 1996 by the National Space Development Agency of Japan whose charter led the Japanese Development of Space Program. Two months later, Noguchi flew overseas and reported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. After two years of training and evaluation, he qualified for flight assignment as mission specialist.
He will also become the second Japanese astronaut ever to walk the void on three spacewalks. Along with STS-114 crewmate Steve Robinson, he will perform maintenance to the Station as well as demonstrate new critical tile repair techniques for the Shuttle.

"Every mission is critical," Noguchi said. "Our mission actually opens the doors for all subsequent flights. If we don't make a successful flight, there may be no other flights following us, so in that sense, our mission is very critical to continue our journey to space.

Mission Specialist Steve Robinson
He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical aeronautical engineering from the University of California at Davis in 1978, followed with a master's in 1985 and a doctorate in 1990, both in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Robinson started work at NASA's Ames Research Center in 1979 as a research scientist in the fields of fluid dynamics and aerodynamics.
1995 to begin his official training.
Robinson met his dream of flying into space in 1997 as he flew onboard Shuttle mission STS-85. As mission specialist, he flew the shuttle robot arm and the experimental Japanese robot arm, and served as a backup to the spacewalk crew.

"If you try to take the fragile human body from zero velocity relative to the surface of the Earth, accelerate it to 17,500 mph in the vacuum of space, and then reverse that process and bring it down, it is inherently dangerous," he explained. "It is, however, worth it because this is the human destiny."

Mission Specialist Andy Thomas
Earning First Class Honors, he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Adelaide in 1973. Without stopping, he began to pursue post-graduate studies, and four years later, he received his doctorate in mechanical engineering, also from the University of Adelaide
It was at JPL that his highest ambition would finally be within his grasp. In 1992, Thomas was selected to join America's Astronaut Corps and completed training as a mission specialist the following year.
May 19, 1996, marked his first day in space. He has made three trips into space on two Shuttles, Endeavour and Discovery.

"I see that as a very logical progression in the idea of human exploration of going out initially in ships from the civilization centers to the uncharted parts of the world," he said. "I see the next steps as going beyond the world, out into the solar system."