National Aeronautics and Space Administration

PERSONAL DATA: Born August 15, 1959 in Lincoln, Illinois. Married to the former Jill Shannon Loomer of Tucson, Arizona. They have three children. Enjoys classic automobiles, flying and computers. Avid reader and sports fan/participant. Hometown is Pekin, Illinois, where his parents, Fred and Sharon Altman, currently reside.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Pekin Community High School, Pekin, Illinois in 1977; received bachelor of science degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois in May 1981, and a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in June 1990.

SPECIAL HONORS: Navy Strike/Flight Air Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, 1987 Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Tactical Aviation as selected by the Association of Naval Aviation.

Commander Scott Altman is the leader of this servicing mission. Altman has logged more than 4000 flight hours in more than 40 types of aircraft. His early career included work as a Navy test pilot on various F-14 projects. For his role as a strike leader flying over Southern Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch, he was awarded the Navy Air Medal.

In December of 1994, NASA selected Altman to become an astronaut. Since then, he has logged more than 664 hours in space as the pilot of two Shuttle flights, STS-90 and STS-106. During STS-90, the 16-day Spacelab flight, Altman worked closely with Rick Linnehan, who rejoins him on the STS-109 Hubble servicing mission. Altman, Linnehan and the rest of STS-90's seven person crew served as both experiment subjects and operators for 26 individual life science experiments, which focused on the effects of microgravity on the brain and nervous system.

As pilot of Atlantis during the 12-day STS-106 mission, Altman helped to successfully prepare the International Space Station for the arrival of its first permanent crew. The five astronauts and two cosmonauts delivered more than 6,600 pounds of supplies and installed batteries, power converters, a toilet and a treadmill on the Space Station. Altman was one of two operators of the robot arm transporting the EVA crew during the spacewalk. He also manually performed two complete flyarounds of the Station by Atlantis after undocking from the Station.