Glenn's crewmates an eclectic group

Astronaut John Glenn, right, explains one of the experiments he will take part in his upcoming space shuttle mission during a crew news conference October 15 at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

October 22, 1998
Web posted at: 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT)

(CNN) -- From all the hype surrounding John Glenn's mission, it's easy to lose sight of a simple fact: Glenn isn't the only person going into space October 29.

Meet the other STS-95 crew members, most of them children when Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth and a national hero.

One is from Spain, one is from Japan; the other four are Americans. One's a space rookie, another was once an Olympic-caliber luge competitor, and another plays lead guitar in a rock 'n' roll band.

They all share one thing in common: the view that next week's shuttle mission will be something special, even in a time when manned orbital flight has become almost routine.

Robinson

"Of course any flight you're on you think is the best flight ever," says mission specialist Stephen Robinson. "But we're very excited about this one because it's an integration of -- I think -- everything the shuttle was ever designed to do and has ever been envisioned for a use of a space shuttle."

That includes using the spacecraft as a laboratory, as a platform for astronomy experiments -- the payload includes a satellite that will study the sun's atmosphere -- and as a means to test new space flight technology, some of which will be used to build the International Space Station.

It will be the second space flight for Robinson, 42, who was turned down six times by NASA before finally being accepted for astronaut training in December 1994. Robinson, who plays lead guitar in an all-astronaut band called Max Q, was a member of Discovery's crew in August 1997.

Brown

Discovery Cmdr. Curtis Brown says he welcomes the extra publicity generated by their legendary crewmate.

"We've been overwhelmed by the curiosity and excitement and energy for this flight," Brown says. One of NASA's most experienced commanders, Brown has logged more than 41 hours in space on four shuttle missions.

Even so, he admits having trouble when it comes to treating Glenn as just another member of the crew.

"In public, I refer to him as 'Senator Glenn,'" Brown says. "He deserves that respect."

Parazynski

Scott Parazynski, flight engineer, displays an even more reverent attitude.

"I'm really personally honored to be able to share the skies with a very good friend and one of my boyhood heroes," Parazynski said during a recent mission briefing.

Parazynksi's all-American looks belie his rich international background. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, he attended junior high school in Senegal and Lebanon and high school in Iran and Greece before getting a medical degree -- with honors -- from Stanford University.

Cmdr. Brown facetiously refers to the 37-year-old physician as a "chronic underachiever." While in medical school, Parazynski was in the U.S. luge team's development program and was among the nation's 10 best competitors during the 1988 Olympic trials.

Parazynski, who will draw blood samples from Glenn during the mission, was just 7 years old when Glenn orbited the Earth in 1962.

Duque

Pedro Duque, 35, is the mission rookie, making his first flight into space. A wiry Spaniard with a sardonic sense of humor, Duque will help conduct payload experiments for the European Space Agency -- Europe's version of NASA.

"You know what we mean by payloads," Duque said recently, smirking. "You load the shuttle with something, and somebody has to pay for it to fly."

Duque says the international flavor of the mission, combined with its heavy science payload, makes it something of a dry run for the multi-country teamwork that will characterize the International Space Station.

"Nothing is compartmentalized. We're operating more or less as we'll be operating on the space station ... the crew is an integrated unit," Duque says.

Mukai

The other international crewmember is payload specialist Chiaki Mukai, 46. She was the first Japanese woman in space.

In her earlier mission, she was struck by the spatial disorientation that can affect astronauts in microgravity.

"I couldn't tell which is ceiling and which is the floor," Makai recalls. "Sometimes I felt the wall or floor was my ceiling and I thought, gee, that's a wonderful experience and I wish I could see what is happening in my inner ear, my gravity-sensing organ."

She may get a chance to find out on this mission, through an experiment involving electrodes implanted in the vestibular nerves of fish. Mukai will monitor signals from the "inner ear" of each fish to study how such gravity-sensing organs adapt to space.

"So I can say, 'Oh fish, you have this kind of response, then you behave something like that.' ... So I believe the result obtained will enable us to understand the space adaptation experience that astronauts sometimes have."

Mukai says her findings could also help people who are suffering from motion sickness or vestibular problems on the ground, which are similar to the problems experienced by astronauts in microgravity.

Mukai, a cardiovascular surgeon, has won many awards and commendations and accumulated nearly 354 hours in space as a payload specialist aboard shuttle Columbia in 1994.

Then there's the other payload specialist -- Glenn.

"He was happy to come fly with us, but he may not be too happy after a few days in orbit, because we're going to work his fingers to the bone," Brown says.

In spite of the intense media attention, mission members have tried to accommodate Glenn's stated desire to be treated as just one of the team.

"We don't make it the 'John Glenn flight,'" Brown said. "Our job is to go up and work for NASA."

Lindsey

Watching Glenn train, Brown said, reinforced his belief that it took "a special breed of person to be able to deal with that (danger) and do that work."

But the highly educated crew, rounded out by pilot Steve Lindsey, also impressed Glenn, Brown said.

"He's amazed at our ... scientific background (and) knowledge," Brown said. "Back then they were looking for test pilots. Nowadays, we go to orbit to work."