Meet The Endeavour Crew

Dom Gorie, Commander

Dom Gorie, 44, a Navy captain, combat veteran of Desert Storm, former test pilot and veteran of two spaceflights, will command Endeavour's STS-108 flight to the International Space Station and be responsible for its safety and success.

He will fly Endeavour through its rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station on the 107th flight of the space shuttle program. He will be the intravehicular crewmember during the spacewalk, helping keep the astronauts on task and on time.

Gorie will have primary responsibility for water transfer from the shuttle to the station, a mission priority. He will assist pilot Mark Kelly in Endeavour's flyaround of the station after undocking. Finally, he will land Endeavour at the end of the mission.

Gorie flew as pilot on STS-91, the last shuttle flight to Mir, in June 1998, and on STS-99, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission to map much of the Earth, in February 2000.

Mark Kelly, Pilot

A Navy lieutenant commander and, like his commander, former test pilot and Desert Storm combat veteran, pilot Mark E. Kelly, 37, was selected as an astronaut in April 1996.

Kelly will be responsible for monitoring critical shuttle systems and assisting Gorie during ascent and entry. He also will play a major role during rendezvous and docking operations, responsible for many of the shuttle's navigational tools. He will be responsible for operating still and video cameras.

Kelly will be primary arm operator during the mission's single spacewalk. After participating in Endeavour's undocking from the station, he will perform the flyaround of the orbiting laboratory.

Kelly is making his first spaceflight.

Linda Godwin, Mission Specialist 1

Linda M. Godwin, 49, holds a Ph.D. in physics and is a veteran of three spaceflights. She will do the spacewalk planned for the STS-108 flight of Endeavour. She will have primary responsibility for opening and closing of the shuttle's payload bay doors after Endeavour reaches orbit and during deorbit preparations.

Godwin will be shuttle loadmaster during logistics transfer operations. She will have primary responsibility for the Androgynous Peripheral Docking System on docking and undocking, and for shuttle pressure and leak checks on docking.

She will be primary operator of the shuttle's robotic arm during berthing and unberthing of the Multipurpose Logistics Module, and be responsible for a number of scientific payloads.

Godwin was a mission specialist on STS-37, the Gamma Ray Observatory flight, in April 1991. She also flew on STS-59, the Space Radar Laboratory Mission in April 1994, and on STS-76, the third shuttle docking mission to the Russian space station Mir in March 1996.

Daniel Tani, Mission Specialist 2

Daniel M. Tani, 40, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was selected as an astronaut in April 1996 after working for about 10 years for space-related companies, primarily with Orbital Sciences Corp.

Assignments there included a period as launch operations manager of the Pegasus program. Tani will participate with Godwin in the flight's spacewalk. Tani will serve as Endeavour's flight engineer during ascent and entry.

He will have primary responsibility in post-insertion activities, converting the shuttle from a launch vehicle to an orbiting spacecraft. He will provide information to the commander and pilot during rendezvous with the station and after undocking, and be responsible for shuttle laptop and payload support computers.

He has primary responsibility for deploying the Starshine 2 satellite.

Tani is making his first spaceflight.

Yury Onufrienko, Expedition 4 Commander

Col. Yury Ivanovich Onufrienko, 40, a test cosmonaut and former senior pilot in his country's air force, commanded the Mir 21 expedition in 1996. Fellow crewmembers included Astronaut Shannon Lucid and ISS Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev.

As ISS commander, he will have overall responsibility for expedition safety and success of the space station and the Expedition Four crew. He also will have duties aboard Endeavour.

During rendezvous, he will have backup responsibilities for communication with the station and with Mission Control-Moscow and for shuttle pressure and leak checks. He is backup shuttle robotic arm operator for the spacewalk. He has primary responsibility for transfer of the culture growth experiment and the contents of the biotechnology refrigerator from Endeavour to the station.

Onufrienko has made one previous spaceflight, as commander of the Mir 21 expedition from Feb. 21 to Sept. 2, 1996.

Daniel Bursch, Flight Engineer

Daniel W. Bursch, 44, is a Navy captain, a former test pilot and test pilot school instructor, and a veteran of three spaceflights.

He is a Naval Academy graduate and holds an master's in engineering science from the Naval Postgraduate School. He has more than 3,100 flight hours in 35 aircraft types. He became an astronaut in 1991.

On Endeavour, he will be one of two crew medics. He will have primary responsibility for contact with the station and with Mission Control-Moscow during rendezvous operations. Secondary responsibilities include ISS pressure and leak checks and initial operations.

Bursch flew on STS-51, the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite and Shuttle Pallet Satellite flight, in September 1993. He also flew on STS-68, the Space Radar Lab-2 flight launched in September 1994 and on STS-77, with the fourth Spacehab module, in May 1996.

Carl Walz, Flight Engineer

Air Force Col. Carl E. Walz, 46, a former flight test engineer and flight test manager, was selected as an astronaut in 1990 and is a veteran of three spaceflights. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in physics and enjoys sports and music. He is lead singer for MAXQ, the astronaut rock-n-roll band.

On Endeavour, Walz will have primary responsibility for external tank photography, the handheld laser rangefinder on rendezvous, pressure and leak checks on docking and for moving two scientific experiments from Endeavour to the station. He will serve as backup for post-insertion activities and as backup for intravehicular spacewalk activities.

Walz flew as a mission specialist with Bursch on STS-51, the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite and Shuttle Pallet Satellite flight, in September 1993. He also flew on STS-65, the second International Microgravity Laboratory Spacelab module, in July 1994 and on STS-79, a mission to the Russian space station Mir in September 1997.