KSC-97PC1724

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-89 crew members participate with trainers in the Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT) at the SPACEHAB Payload Processing Facility at Port Canaveral in preparation for the mission, slated to be the first Shuttle launch of 1998. The CEIT gives astronauts an opportunity to get a hands-on look at the payloads with which they will be working on-orbit. From left to right are Mission Specialists Michael Anderson and Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D.; Commander Terry Wilcutt; Boeing SPACEHAB Operations Engineer Jim Behling; Boeing SPACEHAB Crew Trainer Laura Keiser; an unidentified staff member (with mustache); Mission Specialist Salizhan Sharipov of the Russian Space Agency; and Pilot Joe Edwards. 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 nineday 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 sevenmember crew is targeted for Jan. 15, 1998, at 1:03 a.m. EST from Launch Pad 39A