KSC-98pc675

STS-91 Mission Specialist Franklin R. Chang-Diaz gets assistance from a suit technician as he dons his flight suit in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building. The fitting takes place prior to the crew walkout and transport to Launch Pad 39A. He is on his sixth space flight. Chang-Diaz holds a doctorate in applied plasma physics and is director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the University of Houston. Franklin’s background will serve him well during the mission, since he will be primarily responsible for crew activities in support of the of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. He will also back up Lawrence with the mideck experiments and Kavandi with SPACEHAB operations. STS-91 is scheduled to be launched on June 2 with a launch window opening around 6:10 p.m. EDT. The mission will feature the ninth and final Shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station Mir, the first Mir docking for Discovery, the first on-orbit test of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), and the first flight of the new Space Shuttle super lightweight external tank. Astronaut Andrew S. W. Thomas will return to Earth as a STS-91 crew member after living more than four months aboard Mir