Posing for the traditional preflight crew portrait, the seven astronauts of the STS-109 mission are (left to right) astronauts Michael J. Massimino, Richard M. Linnehan, Duane G. Carey, Scott D. Altman, Nancy J. Currie, John M. Grunsfeld and James H. Newman. Altman and Carey were commander and pilot, respectively, with the others serving as mission specialists. Grunsfeld was payload commander. Launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on March 1, 2002, the group was the fourth visit to the the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for performing upgrade and servicing on the giant orbital observatory.