August 6, 2007

Shuttle's Caldwell earned doctorate at UC Davis
Daily Democrat

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The seven astronauts who make up the crew of space shuttle Endeavour have been fitted together and then rearranged repeatedly since they were first selected in December 2002.

Two astronauts who were part of the original six, including the now-infamous Lisa Nowak, were reassigned. Then Richard Mastracchio was pulled from another crew to join the Endeavour team.

Both Sunita Williams and Clay Anderson, at different times, were supposed to hitch rides with the Endeavour group for stays at the international space station, but both ended up going on earlier shuttle flights. Alvin Drew was added to the crew just a few months before the planned launch to replace Anderson.

"It has changed significantly," commander Scott Kelly said of his team.

Among those flying aboard the craft is Tracy Caldwell, a UC Davis graduate.

Caldwell, now 37, will celebrate her 38th birthday during the mission. A resident of Arcadia, Caldwell is single.

When she was a junior in high school, Caldwell wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life so she made a list of thing she liked: Science, machine work, running track, cheerleading, working with tools and learning languages. Nothing stood out as a career.

Then a young teacher from New Hampshire started attracting attention because she was going to fly to space.

"The world was excited about NASA and Christa McAuliffe and that's when I decided to learn more about astronauts," Caldwell said. "I looked at my list and looked at what astronauts did and decided that that was exactly what I wanted to do."

Caldwell earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from California State University at Fullerton, where she was a sprinter and long jumper on the track team, and later received a doctorate in physical chemistry from UC Davis. She was selected for the astronaut corps in 1998.

She speaks Russian as well as American Sign Language, which she learned in high school. If there is any down time during the mission, she hopes to give a video tour of the space station in sign language which could be distributed to deaf communities upon her return.