WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

During emergency egress training at Launch Pad 39B, members of the STS-96 crew ride inside a small armored personnel carrier. The tracked vehicle could be used by the crew in the event of an emergency at the pad during which the crew must make a quick exit from the area. From left are Pilot Rick Douglas Husband; Mission Specialists Daniel Barry (partly hidden), Tamara E. Jernigan, Julie Payette, and Valery Ivanovich Tokarev; and Commander Kent V. Rominger. Not shown is Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa. The crew are at KSC for Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities, which also include simulated countdown exercises and opportunities to inspect the mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay. Mission STS-96, which is scheduled for liftoff 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.