KSC-98pc1441

After leaving the Operations and Checkout Building, the STS-95 crew approach the Astrovan for their trip to Launch Pad 39B. Leading the group is Mission Commander Curtis L. Brown Jr. (far right), waving to the media and well-wishers; next him is Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai (left), with the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). Behind them are (2nd row) Pilot Steven W. Lindsey (left) and Payload Specialist John H. Glenn Jr. (right), senator from Ohio; (3rd row) Mission Specialists Scott E. Parazynski , Stephen K. Robinson and Pedro Duque of Spain (right), with the European Space Agency. 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