By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Author
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX’s second crew has two army officers who performed school soccer, a former area shuttle flight controller, and the primary particular person in a long time to launch aboard three sorts of rocketships.
The three Individuals and one Japanese ought to attain the Worldwide House Station late Monday for a five- to six-month keep, following Sunday’s liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy House Heart.
—Crew commander Mike Hopkins, 51, is an Air Drive colonel and former area station resident who grew up on a hog and cattle farm in Missouri. He performed soccer for the College of Illinois and, earlier than changing into an astronaut in 2009, labored on the Pentagon. He was working as a particular assistant to the vice chairman of the Joints Chief of Employees when he acquired the decision from NASA. He and spouse Julie have two college-age sons.
—Navy Cmdr. Victor Glover, 44, is the pilot and lone area rookie. He’s from the Los Angeles space and would be the first African-American astronaut to maneuver into the area station for a protracted keep. He wrestled and performed soccer at California Polytechnic State College. When picked as a NASA astronaut in 2013, he was working as a legislative fellow for the late Sen. John McCain. He and spouse Dionna have 4 daughters.
—Shannon Walker, 55, a Houston-born-and-raised physicist, additionally has lived earlier than on the area station. Her husband, retired astronaut Andrew Thomas, helped construct the outpost. She labored as a flight controller at NASA’s Johnson House Heart after which behind the scenes within the area station program, earlier than changing into an astronaut in 2004. Her graduate research at Rice College targeted on the ambiance of Venus.
—The Japanese House Company’s Soichi Noguchi, 55, one other former station resident, is simply the third particular person to launch on three sorts of spacecraft. (He follows the late Wally Schirra and John Younger) He’s already flown on a U.S. area shuttle — the primary mission after the 2003 Columbia accident — and a Russian Soyuz. A 3-time graduate of the College of Tokyo, the engineer and longtime Scout turned an astronaut in 1996. Two grown daughters dwell in Tokyo; his youngest joined him and his spouse Miwa in Houston.
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