KSC-98pc1269

Near Launch Pad 39-B, STS-95 Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai (second from right), representing the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), responds to questions about the mission and training from reporters during a brief break from the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). Other crew members also participated: (from left) Mission Specialist Scott E. Parazynski, Mission Specialist Stephen K. Robinson, who also serves as Payload Commander, Pilot Steven W. Lindsey, Mission Commander Curtis L. Brown, Mission Specialist Pedro Duque of Spain, representing the European Space Agency (ESA), (Mukai), and Payload Specialist John H. Glenn Jr., senator from Ohio. The crew were at the pad for emergency egress training after the break. The TCDT also involves mission familiarization activities and a simulated main engine cut-off exercise. 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. Following the TCDT, the crew will be returning to Houston for final flight preparations