Astronauts Excited For Mission

Endeavour astronauts this morning said they look forward to next month's mission to outfit the International Space Station for six-person crews.

"We're turning the space station from a three-bedroom, one-bath outpost to a five-bedroom, two-bath orbiting laboratory from which we can conduct science for the years to come," said Commander Chris Ferguson.

"We've been anxious to get to a six-person crew for a very long time, and this mission is the first stepping stone towards that," added Sandra Magnus, a mission specialist who will stay behind on the station for four months as a member of Expedition 18.

Wearing blue flight suits on an unusually chilly morning at launch pad 39A, the STS-126 crew gathered to answer media questions with a view of Endeavour's solid rocket boosters and external tank as a backdrop.

Joining Ferguson and Magnus were pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Steve Bowen, Shane Kimbrough, Sandra Magnus, Don Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

They are in town for training that includes walk-throughs of launch pad escape procedures and, on Wednesday, a rehearsal of their planned Nov. 14 countdown.

The training is particularly valuable for first-time flyers, said the crew's three rookies - Boe, Bowen and Kimbrough.

"For three of us it's the first chance to get in the vehicle while it's on the pad, kind of see how things are," said Boe.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity to see how the vehicle actually feels, to lay on my back and get my feet up," said Bowen. "What can you really reach, what can you really see? Those sort of details you don't get in the training even back at (Johnson Space Center)."

Wednesday morning, the astronauts will dress in orange launch-and-entry suits, drive from their crew quarters to the launch pad under an armed escort and take their seats in the shuttle, just as they will on the real launch day.

A simulated liftoff time is scheduled for 11 a.m. The crew, still dressed in heavy spacesuits, will then practice an abort procedure in which they hop into baskets that would slide to the ground 195 feet below.

On Monday, the crew inspected the launch pad bunker they would take shelter in next, and practiced driving an armored personnel carrier they would ride to safety if time allows. Ferguson and Boe also practiced shuttle landings in modified Gulfstream jets, shown at left.

IMAGE NOTE: Click on images twice to enlarge them. Above, with shuttle Endeavour as the backdrop on launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the STS-126 crew members pose for a final photo after answering questions from the media. From left are Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Steve Bowen, Sandra Magnus, Shane Kimbrough, Donald Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper. Below, the Shuttle Training Aircraft, or STA, with STS-126 Commander Chris Ferguson and Pilot Eric Boe on board, takes off from the Shuttle Landing Facility. Ferguson and Boe will practice shuttle landings on the STA, a Grumman American Aviation-built Gulf Stream II jet that was modified to simulate a shuttle’s cockpit, motion and visual cues, and handling qualities. In flight, the aircraft duplicates the shuttle’s atmospheric descent trajectory from approximately 35,000 feet to landing. Photo credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett.