WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

After arriving at Kennedy on the T-38 jet aircraft in the background, the STS-96 crew pose for photographers at the Shuttle Landing Facility. From left are Pilot Rick Douglas Husband; Mission Specialists Julie Payette, Daniel Barry (M.D., Ph.D.), Tamara E. Jernigan (Ph.D.), Valery Ivanovich Tokarev, and Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D.); and Commander Kent V. Rominger. 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.