NASA officials assign crew for final scheduled Space Shuttle mission

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WASHINGTON (AFNS) --  NASA officials have assigned the crew for the last scheduled space shuttle mission, targeted to launch in September 2010. 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.

Colonel 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. Colonel Lindsey was born in Arcadia, Calif., and considers Temple City, Calif., 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.

Colonel 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 he transitions in October to training for his spaceflight. Ms. Whitson was a flight engineer aboard the station during Expedition 5 in 2002 and the commander of Expedition 16 in 2007 to 2008.

Colonel 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. He has a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master's degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Colonel 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. Colonel 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. 

Doctor 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 Oct. 11. He was born in Vancouver, Wash., and considers Camas, Wash., 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.

Colonel 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 Sept. 11. He 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.

Ms. Stott is in the midst of her first mission as a flight engineer aboard the station with Doctor Barratt for Expeditions 20 and 21. She launched aboard STS-128 on Aug. 28 and is due to return at the end of STS-129, targeted for launch Nov. 12. She was born in Albany, N.Y., and considers Clearwater, Fla., her hometown. She has a bachelor's degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a master's degree from the University of Central Florida.

(Courtesy of NASA News Service)