Greeted the STS-90 astronauts depart the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Launch Pad 39B.

Greeted by cheers from wellwishers at KSC and eager for their venture into space on the Neurolab mission, the STS-90 astronauts depart the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Launch Pad 39B. The seven-member crew include (front to back, right to left) Mission Commander Richard Searfoss; Pilot Scott Altman; Mission Specialists Kathryn (Kay) Hire, Dafydd (Dave) Williams, M.D., with the Canadian Space Agency, and Richard Linnehan, D.V.M.; and Payload Specialists James Pawelczyk, Ph.D., and Jay Buckey, M.D. Their trip to the pad will take about 25 minutes aboard the Astrovan. Once there, they will take their positions in the crew cabin of the Space Shuttle Columbia to await a liftoff during a two-and-a-half hour window that will open at 2:19 p.m. EDT.