WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

STS-96 Commander Kent V. Rominger arrives at the Shuttle Landing Facility in a T-38 jet aircraft. The STS-96 crew are taking part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities. The TCDT provides the crew with simulated countdown exercises, emergency egress training, and opportunities to inspect the mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay. Mission STS-96, which is targeted for launch on May 20 at 9:32 a.m., is a logistics and resupply mission for the International Space Station, carrying such payloads as a Russian crane, the Strela; a U.S.-built crane; the Spacehab Oceaneering Space System Box (SHOSS), a logistics items carrier; and STARSHINE, a student-led experiment. Others in the STS-96 crew are Pilot Rick Douglas Husband, and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D.), Tamara E. Jernigan (Ph.D.), Daniel Barry (M.D., Ph.D.), Julie Payette and Valery Ivanovich Tokarev. Payette represents the Canadian Space Agency and Tokarev the Russian Space Agency.