[Background sounds]
>> The next members
of the International Space Station crew all believe
that their 6 month mission is an important part
of the work that's needed to help human beings continue
to explore well beyond their home planet.
Pavel Vinogradov was born in the far Eastern Russian town
of Magadan and grew up in the even farther Eastern town
of Anoder [phonetic], just 500 miles
across the Bering Sea from Nome, Alaska.
>> Pavel Vinogradov: [Foreign language spoken].
>> If you have been to Alaska, then it's pretty much the same.
The nature is just fantastic.
Of course the climate is very harsh, 8 months of winter,
lots of snow and ice but I love it.
I enjoy it.
>> After a childhood spent dreaming of becoming a pilot,
Vinogradov left Anoder after high school
for the Moscow Aviation Institute.
He earned a degree in rocket booster design.
Then taught and did research
at the institute while earning a second degree
in computer systems and systems analysis.
Vinogradov joined the Design Bureau
of the Rocket Space Corporation Energia in 1983 and worked
on the Meer [phonetic] Space Station, the Boron Shuttle
and other Energia vehicles before being selected
to Energia's cosmonaut core in 1992.
He logged 198 days in space as the board engineer on Meer 24
and made 5 space walks to repair Meer
after a progress crater [phonetic] punched a hole in it
in the summer of 1997.
He made one more space walk in 2006 as commander
of the International Space Stations' Expedition 13,
a 183 day mission that restored the station's crew complement
to 3.
He believes today's space exploration bare comparison
to the sea voyages of the great explorers
in the age of discovery.
>> Pavel Vinogradov: [Foreign language].
>> People who were exploring the earth did not know what --
that they will discover America in 4 months, for example.
The risks were great but I have no doubt that likewise,
we as those explorers, we need to explore space.
>> Retired Russian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Alexander
Misurkin is a product of Western Russia.
Born in Yershichi in the Smolensk region
and raised a couple of hundred miles away in Oryol.
He calls his childhood a typical one and says even
as a young boy he wanted
to go places no one had been to before.
>> Alexander Misurkin: I wanted and decided to be a cosmonaut
when I was a little boy.
When I was 13 years old, I went to the Aviation Club.
There I made [inaudible] that I was flying on gliders.
>> Becoming a pilot was next on his list.
After school in Oryol, Misurkin went
to the Kacha High Air Force Pilot School
in Vulgagrad [phonetic] then he finished his pilot training
at the Armavir Military Aviation Institute
in Krasnodar in southern Russia.
He spent the next 7 years in the Russian Air Force
as a pilot instructor
as the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute before being
selected as a cosmonaut in 2006.
Misurkin shares the philosophical view
of the Russian rocket science pioneer Constantine Silkowski
who believed that earth is the cradle of humanity
but that mankind can't stay in the cradle forever.
>> am: He was positive that we are going to the space
and we will live in -- in other worlds in other different ways
and it's -- the time will come for this I'm sure.
That is why I think we should do this job.
>> U.S. Navy Commander Chris Cassidy is a native of Salem,
Massachusetts, who grew up in York, Maine,
on the Atlantic Coast.
He was aware of the space program as a young boy
but admits, he wasn't particularly interested.
>> Chris Cassidy: I was just like every other boy.
I mowed lawns, had a couple odd jobs in restaurants and things
in the summertime but that was all too really pay my gas
to drive to the basketball court.
>> Cassidy left York after high school.
First for a year at the Naval Academy Prep School and then
onto Annapolis where he earned a Bachelor's in Mathematics.
Next stop was San Diego to begin training
in special operations as a Navy Seal.
After 4 years stationed in Virginia, he earned a Master's
in Ocean Engineering at MIT and about that time, he became aware
of a fellow Navy Seal who'd had a similar career art to his,
Astronaut Bill Shepherd [phonetic].
>> Chris Cassidy: So one day I actually met him or called him
and we had a -- he gave some great information
and I thought you know what that sounds really --
like a really fun job.
I think I'd like to do that.
So I was probably 26 or 27 when the first --
when the idea first popped into my head.
>> Cassidy applied but didn't get the call from NASA.
The next year just weeks after September 11th,
the Seal Platoon he commanded did get the call
and he was deployed
to the Afghanistan region before the first of October.
He returned home to another posting in Virginia
and he was selected for the astronaut program
in 2004 just days after coming home
from a second deployment to Afghanistan.
Cassidy made 3 space walks on his first trip
to the International Space Station
on the 2009 space shuttle mission
that delivered the components to complete construction
of the Kibold [phonetic] Laboratory Complex.
He's enthusiastic about his part in laying the groundwork
for some future generation of earthlings
to fulfill their destination, to find a new home in space.
>> Chris Cassidy: But there'll be a time
when there'll be people living on other planets
and it's the work, the hard work that we're doing right now,
all of us across the globe, that are going to set the stage
for that type of environment.
Just like Christopher Columbus set sail one day
across the ocean and thanks
to those great explorers we live the life that we do today.
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