KSC-97PC1721

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Several STS-89 crew members participate in the Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT) inside the SPACEHAB module at the SPACEHAB Payload Processing Facility at Port Canaveral in preparation for the mission, slated to be the first Shuttle launch of 1998. From left to right are Mission Specialists Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D., and Salizhan Sharipov of the Russian Space Agency, and Pilot Joe Edwards. The CEIT gives astronauts an opportunity to get a hands-on look at the payloads with which they will be working on-orbit. STS-89 will be the eighth of nine scheduled Mir dockings and will include a double module of SPACEHAB, used mainly as a large pressurized cargo container for science, logistical equipment and supplies to be exchanged between the orbiter Endeavour and the Russian Space Station Mir. The nine-day flight of STS-89 also is scheduled to include the transfer of the seventh American to live and work aboard the Russian orbiting outpost. Liftoff of Endeavour and its seven-member crew is targeted for Jan. 15, 1998, at 1:03 a.m. EST from Launch Pad 39A