KSC-98pc1432

The STS-95 crew gathers at their traditional pre-launch breakfast in the Operations and Checkout Building. Seated from left are Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai, (M.D., Ph.D.), with the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), Payload Specialist John H. Glenn Jr., senator from Ohio, Pilot Steven W. Lindsey, Mission Commander Curtis L. Brown Jr., Mission Specialist Stephen K. Robinson, Mission Specialist Pedro Duque of Spain, representing the European Space Agency (ESA), and Mission Specialist Scott E. Parazynski. Targeted for launch at 2 p.m. EST on Oct. 29, the mission is expected to last 8 days, 21 hours and 49 minutes, and return to KSC at 11:49 a.m. EST on Nov. 7. The STS-95 mission 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