SPACEPHOTOS

(04/29/1999) --- Continuing with Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities, the STS-96 crew exit the Operations and Checkout Building after suiting up for their practice countdown exercise. The TCDT also provides the crew with emergency egress training and opportunities to inspect the mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay. Clockwise starting from the front left are Mission Specialists Tamara E. Jernigan (Ph.D.), Julie Payette, Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D.), Valery Ivanovich Tokarev; (right side) Daniel Barry (M.D., Ph.D.), Pilot Rick Douglas Husband, and Commander Kent V. Rominger. Scheduled for liftoff on May 20 at 9:32 a.m., STS-96 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