Tells the story of an elite group of space travellers who flew as members of many space shuttle crews from pre-Challenger days to Columbia in 2003. Not part of the regular NASA astronaut corps, these professionals known as ""payload specialists"" came from a wide variety of backgrounds and were chosen for a wide variety of scientific, political, and national security reasons.
Focuses on the early selection, training, and spaceflight experiences of a new class of astronaut known as “payload specialists.”
