WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

After arriving at Kennedy on the T-38 jet aircraft in the background, the STS-96 crew take a few minutes to talk to the media at the Shuttle Landing Facility. At the microphone is Commander Kent V. Rominger. With him are (left to right) Mission Specialist Daniel Barry (M.D., Ph.D.), Pilot Rick Douglas Husband, and Mission Specialists Valery Ivanovich Tokarev, Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D.), Tamara E. Jernigan (Ph.D.), and Julie Payette. Tokarev is with the Russian Space Agency and Payette is with the Canadian Space Agency. The crew are taking part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities. The TCDT provides 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.