SPACEPHOTOS

(04/29/1999) --- On Launch Pad 39B, STS-96 Commander Kent V. Rominger (left) and Pilot Rick Douglas Husband (right) get ready to ride the slidewire basket to the ground as part of emergency egress training. Behind them are two other crew members getting into a slidewire basket. The training is part of the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities, which also provide the crew with 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 Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D.), Tamara E. Jernigan (Ph.D.), Daniel Barry (M.D., Ph.D.), Julie Payette, who is with the Canadian Space Agency, and Valery Ivanovich Tokarev, who is with the Russian Space Agency. STS-96, 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