WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Under the eye of Capt. Steve Kelly (left), with Space Gateway Support, Commander Kent V. Rominger gets ready to practice driving the small armored personnel carrier that is part of emergency egress training during Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities. At the rear is Douglas Hamilton, a Canadian flight surgeon. 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. The TCDT also provides simulated countdown exercises and opportunities to inspect the mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay. Other crew members taking part in the TCDT 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. 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.