SPACEPHOTOS

(06/02/1998) --- STS-91 Mission Specialist Wendy B. Lawrence is ready to go as her flight suit gets a final checkout in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building. The fitting takes place prior to the crew walkout and transport to Launch Pad 39A. She is a commander in the Navy and is on her third Shuttle mission and second trip to Mir. Lawrence has served as Director of Operations for NASA at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, and has also trained for a Shuttle-Mir flight. Lawrence will also on the flight deck during ascent and re-entry as flight engineer. In this capacity, she will be on-hand to support the commander and copilot in these critical parts of the flight. She will also have primary responsibility for all Shuttle-Mir transfer operations and science experiments in the middeck crew cabin area. STS-91 is scheduled to be launched on June 2 with a launch window opening around 6:10 p.m. EDT. The mission will feature the ninth and final Shuttle docking with the Russian space station Mir, the first Mir docking for Discovery, the first on-orbit test of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), and the first flight of the new Space Shuttle super lightweight external tank. Astronaut Andrew S. W. Thomas will return to Earth as a STS91 crew member after living more than four months aboard Mir