NASA has chosen a Richland High School graduate to command a fall 2007 shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

	Navy Cmdr. Stephen N. Frick

Navy Cmdr. Stephen N. Frick will command Space Shuttle Discovery -- which touched down Monday after 13 days in space -- on a mission to deliver and install the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory at the space station.

It will mark Cmdr. Frick's second shuttle flight. He served as pilot during the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission April 8-19, 2002, to the space station.

"Obviously for a commander, you need someone with demonstrated skills in flying and spacecraft skills and someone who has demonstrated he works well with people," said Duane Ross, NASA manager for astronaut candidate selection and training. "It has to be someone with a world of confidence.

"It's a really important position to be in, and you have to do it right the first time," he said.

A 1982 graduate of Richland High, now Pine-Richland High, Cmdr. Frick graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1986. As a Navy pilot, he logged 3,200 flight hours in 35 different aircraft, including 370 aircraft carrier landings, his NASA biography states.

Deployed during Desert Storm and Desert Shield, he flew 26 combat missions from the Red Sea to targets in Iraq and Kuwait.

He received a master's degree in 1994 in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Navy Postgraduate School.

Working as a test pilot on the F/A-18 Hornet, he was preparing to return to an F/A-18 squadron in April 1996 when he was one of 35 candidates selected from 2,451 applicants to join the astronaut program.

After two years of training and evaluation, he qualified as a shuttle pilot, leading to his appointment to serve as pilot and second in command during the 2002 Atlantis mission.

During the recent Discovery mission, Cmdr. Frick served as a "capsule communicator" and kept in touch with shuttle crew members during their 5 million-mile journey, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said.

Five shuttle flights must take place before his shuttle mission can be scheduled and launched.

Those missions will focus on building docking ports on the International Space Station to prepare for installation of space laboratories from Europe and Japan.

During Cmdr. Frick's mission, the crew will deliver and connect the European space lab to a docking port during two space walks, Mr. Navias said.

To qualify as a shuttle pilot, an astronaut must undergo 500 simulated shuttle landings. For now, NASA has only 30 pilots, Mr. Ross said.

To qualify as commander, an astronaut must have flown at least one shuttle mission and must have completed 1,000 simulated shuttle landings.

It makes for a select group of astronauts, Mr. Ross said.

The fact he's participated in only one shuttle flight before being named commander means "he's really good at what he does," NASA spokesman Doug Peterson said. "The norm is two flights."

Cmdr. Frick now will undergo a difficult training regimen to prepare for the mission and learn contingency plans should problems occur during the flight.