ALSO: Discovery mission timeline INTERACTIVE ISS: A 360° panoramic tour International Space Station 3-D VRML (PCs only) Shuttle Discovery 3-D VRML (PCs only) International Space Station Message Board  MORE CREW PROFILES Profile 1: Kent V. Rominger Profile 2: Rick Husband Profile 3: Ellen Ochoa Profile 4: Tammy Jernigan Profile 5: Dan BarryProfile 6: Julie PayetteProfile 7: Valery Tokarev

May 27, 1999
Web posted at: 12:43 p.m. EDT (1643 GMT)

e-mail: space@cnn.com

HOUSTON (CNN) -- She has the name, the accent and the look of a country-western singer, but this girl from Tennessee has bigger fish to fry than writing tunes with a twang.

No, Tammy Jernigan holds a doctorate in space physics and astronomy. Her interests lie in "bipolar outflows in regions of star formation, gamma ray bursters, and shock wave phenomena in the interstellar medium." (a quote from her NASA bio). Whew, there's some heavy lifting for the gray matter.

She just turned 40 (May 7) and already has four shuttle flights under her belt. She was only 26 when she got the acceptance letter from NASA. She had studied physics during her undergrad years at Stanford -- and then stayed in Palo Alto for a Masters in astronomy. For kicks she played varsity intercollegiate volleyball for the Cardinal.

During her free time (did she have any?), she met a fellow student astronomer by the name of Jeff Wisoff, and five years after Tammy became an astronaut, he joined the elite corps.

Between training sessions in the Neutral Buoyancy Facility (the NBF - or as I call it: the BDP -- Big Darn Pool) a love affair blossomed. They walked down the aisle on January 30th -- no doubt with stars in their eyes.

Tammy says they do not see each other as competitors for the plum assignments. "We see each other's successes as a positive refection on ourselves," she said. "When he does well, I do well, because we're married."

Tammy has been a part of a couple of shuttle endurance records. In March of 1995, she was aboard Endeavour when it set the record for the longest shuttle flight up to that date (16 days, 15 hours). Then, on her next flight, November-December 1996, she and her crew (including her current commander Kent Rominger in the pilot's seat) broke that record (17 days, 16 hours). She won't be breaking any records on this mission -- 10 days is as long as the consumables will support a flight to the space station.

Perhaps Tammy is best known for what she did not do on that shuttle-athon. She was timelined for two spacewalks. But no matter how hard they tried, the crew could not open the air lock door. Turns out a screw got loose and jammed the gears.

This is the moment every astronaut fears most: something goes wrong -- and what if it is my fault. What if, as Tom Wolfe put it, I "screwed the pooch"?

"We certainly went over in our minds, is there anything that we didn't do right. Is there anything we could have done to make sure something like this wouldn't happen," said Tammy. As it turns out it the crew did nothing to cause the problem -- and could do nothing on orbit to fix it. Pack up the EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit).

In fact, the only fear I have ever heard an astronaut confess to is a fear of failure. Tammy Jernigan is no exception. When she is strapped into her seat in Discovery, she will be focused on the task at hand: "Because after all the training you've been through you're very, very anxious for the mission to come and to be able to accomplish the mission the way you've trained for it. It's very exciting. You're very anxious to fly, very anxious to lift off the launch pad."

Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien is a regular columnist for CNN Interactive.