Personal data: 42 years old, unmarried, no children.

Past life: flight test engineer with the U.S. Air Force. Helms, who holds the rank of colonel, has flown 30 different types of U.S. and Canadian aircraft.

Orbital ambitions: “I'd like to be able to say that I was born with this burning desire to become an astronaut, but it didn't really happen that way. I sort of grew into the idea over several years … I was in the Air Force already — I think about seven years — before I realized that there were jobs available where engineers could fly as part of an air crew. I have very bad eyesight, so I never had the opportunity to even become an Air Force pilot. It was when I went to test pilot school as a flight test engineer that I realized that that was the kind of role I felt like I was born to play.”

Claim to fame: plays keyboards with all-astronaut rock band, Max-Q.

Previous spaceflights: four shuttle missions, adding up to more than 1,096 hours in space.

Packing up: everything. Helms will have a post office box for her mail, a storage room and a bank account for her paychecks to be automatically deposited, but that’s about all that will be left of her terrestrial existence. “I think I’m pulling off a first here, by effectively shutting down my life on Earth to move to space. Everybody else in the program right now has spouses and homes. I don’t. When I talked to (astronauts) Andy Thomas and Dave Wolf (who flew long-duration missions on Mir) about what they experienced as single people having to maintain a home on Earth while they flew in space, it just wasn’t anywhere close to manageable in my opinion. So I decided to view this whole thing like a military deployment.”

Favorite space tool: screwdrivers. “I found screwdrivers to be the universal tools. Every bolt (in the space station), no matter what size, has a slot in the top for a screwdriver.”

Next best job to being an astronaut: veterinarian

Best space food: Japanese vegetable curry

Will miss most about Earth: the air of the forest. “Nothing compares to being in the woods and taking a deep breath. Of course we’re not going to be able to do that for six months.”

Favorite Russian word: kruta — It means "cool!"