Mission Specialist James H. Newman gives a thumbs up to take part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test TCDT activities.

STS-88 Mission Specialist James H. Newman gives a thumbs up on his nighttime arrival at the Shuttle Landing Facility in a T-38 jet aircraft to take part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities. The TCDT provides the crew with simulated countdown exercises, emergency egress training, and opportunities to inspect their mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay. Mission STS-88 is targeted for launch on Dec. 3, 1998. It is the first U.S. flight for the assembly of the International Space Station and will carry the Unity connecting module. Others in the STS-88 crew are Mission Commander Robert D. Cabana, Pilot Frederick W. "Rick" Sturckow, Mission Specialists Nancy J. Currie, Jerry L. Ross, and Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut. Ross and Newman will make three spacewalks to connect power, data and utility lines and install exterior equipment