KSC-98pc1273

At Launch Pad 39-B, the STS-95 crew gather in the white room, an environmental chamber that mates with the orbiter and can provide emergency egress for the flight crew before launch. The white room is the outer end of the orbiter access arm, which is part of the fixed service structure on the pad. Pictured are (left to right) Mission Specialist Scott E. Parazynski, Mission Commander Curtis L. Brown, Payload Specialist John H. Glenn Jr. (seated), senator from Ohio, Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai (behind Glenn), representing the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), Mission Specialist Stephen K. Robinson, Mission Specialist Pedro Duque of Spain, representing the European Space Agency (ESA), and Pilot Steven W. Lindsey. The STS-95 crew are at KSC to participate in a Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) which includes mission familiarization activities, emergency egress training, 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