KSC-97PC1376

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- STS-86 Mission Specialists Vladimir Georgievich Titov, at left, and Jean-Loup J.M. Chretien, the two members of the STS-86 crew representing foreign space agencies, talk to press representatives before departing from KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility. They and the five other crew members were at KSC to participate in the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). They will return to Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, for final prelaunch training. Titov is a cosmonaut with the Russian Space Agency; Chretien is an astronaut with the French Space Agency, CNES. Titov will make his fifth spaceflight, and second on the Space Shuttle, on STS-86 aboard Atlantis. Chretien has flown twice before as a research-cosmonaut on Russian missions; this will be his first Shuttle mission. STS-86 will be the seventh docking of the Space Shuttle with the Russian Space Station Mir. Liftoff is targeted for Sept. 25 from Launch Pad 39A