NASA Names Crew Members For Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission Next Year

NASA named six astronauts for the STS-120 mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis that is to launch in August or September next year.

The STS-120 mission will take into orbit an Italian-built U.S. module to be added to the International Space Station.

These are the crew members:

• Air Force Col. Pamela A. Melroy will be mission commander. Melroy, a veteran shuttle pilot, is the second woman to command a shuttle.
• Marine Corps Col. George D. Zamka will be pilot.
• Mission specialists will be Scott E. Parazynski, Army Col. Douglas H. Wheelock, Navy Capt. Michael J. Foreman and Paolo A. Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut from Italy. Zamka, Wheelock, Foreman and Nespoli will be making their first spaceflight. STS-120 will be Melroy’s third shuttle flight. The native of Palo Alto, Calif., served as pilot of missions STS-92 in 2000 and STS-112 in 2002, both flights to the space station.

Zamka, a native of Jersey City, N.J., has a bachelor’s from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., and a master’s from the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Fla.

Parazynski, who considers Palo Alto, Calif., his hometown along with Evergreen, Colo., will be making his fifth shuttle flight, and is a veteran spacewalker.

Wheelock, a native of Windsor, N.Y., is a West Point graduate with a master’s from Georgia Tech, Atlanta.

Foreman is a Wadsworth, Ohio, native with a bachelor’s and a master’s from the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif.

Nespoli is a native of Milan, Italy. He has a bachelor’s and a master’s from the Polytechnic University of New York.