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Crew boards shuttle for countdown rehearsal
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: June 15, 2006



 
The astronauts depart their quarters for the launch pad this morning. Credit: NASA-KSC
 
Space shuttle Discovery's seven astronauts climbed aboard their spaceship at launch pad 39B this morning for the final three hours of a mock countdown that ended with a simulated main engine shutdown and crew evacuation.

The Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT, is a routine pre-flight event for all shuttle crews to rehearse launch day procedures and practice escaping their craft if a problem strikes while still on the pad.

Dressed in day-glow orange partial pressure suits, commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Mark Kelly, mission specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson, Piers Sellers and station Expedition flight engineer Thomas Reiter departed the Kennedy Space Center crew quarters around 7:45 a.m. EDT for the half-hour ride to the pad.

One by one, the astronauts crawled through Discovery's port-side hatch and took their assigned seats in the shuttle's two-level crew module. Lindsey, Kelly, Fossum and Nowak were seated in the cockpit while Wilson, Sellers and Reiter occupied the middeck.

Meanwhile, the shuttle launch team stationed in the Firing Room about four miles away were running through countdown scripts. The TCDT serves as a full-up launch day dress rehearsal for the team and astronauts alike, albeit without actually pumping fuel into Discovery or even retracting the service gantry enclosing the orbiter on the pad.

Countdown clocks targeted a simulated launch time of 11 a.m. EDT. But as Discovery's three main engines pretended to ignite at T-minus 6 seconds, a fault was detected that forced the powerplants to shut down moments before liftoff. Such an aborted takeoff has happened for real five times in shuttle program history.

Still wearing their cumbersome spacesuits, the crew exited the shuttle and scurried to the emergency slide-wire baskets on the west side of the launch pad tower. These baskets would be used to quickly transport a shuttle crew to the ground where a fortified bunker awaits if a nightmarish scenario ever occurred. Discovery's crew planned to hop into the baskets but not actually ride them off the tower. In fact, astronauts have never had to escape the pad in such dramatic fashion.

The five-man, two-woman crew will wrap up their KSC visit on Friday and return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for final pre-flight preparations. Before their departure, Lindsey is scheduled to visit with reporters around 10:30 a.m. to give a recap of the TCDT experience.

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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S PAD CHAT WITH CREW DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO: COMMENTS FROM THE COMMANDER PLAY

VIDEO: SHUTTLE MISSION PREVIEW DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: STATION ACTIVITIES ON STS-121 DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: PREVIEW OF DISCOVERY'S SPACEWALKS DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: THE ASTRONAUTS MEET THE PRESS DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: SHUTTLE AND ISS PROGRAM PERSPECTIVE
      DIAL-UP: part 1 and part 2
      BROADBAND: part 1 and part 2
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