KSC-98pc1251

Near Launch Pad 39-B, STS-95 Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai, representing the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), climbs into an M-113, a small armored personnel carrier, that is part of emergency egress training. The tracked vehicle could be used by the crew in the event of an emergency at the pad during which the crew must make a quick exit from the area. The STS-95 crew is at KSC to participate in a Test Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) which also includes mission familiarization activities and a simulated main engine cut-off exercise. The other members on the mission are Mission Commander Curtis L. Brown, Pilot Steven W. Lindsey, Mission Specialists Scott E. Parazynski, Stephen K. Robinson, and Pedro Duque of Spain, representing the European Space Agency (ESA); and Payload Specialist John H. Glenn Jr., senator from Ohio. The STS-95 mission, targeted for liftoff on Oct. 29, includes research payloads such as the Spartan solar-observing deployable spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker, as well as the SPACEHAB single module with experiments on space flight and the aging process