PREFLIGHT (DEPARTURE) - STS-11/41B - ELLINGTON AFB (EAFB), TX

S84-26243 (31 Jan 1984) --- Astronaut Robert L. Gibson, one of five 41-B crewmembers, prepares to leave Houston?s Ellington Base in a T-38 jet aircraft en route to Florida and the Kennedy Space Center, site of February 3?s launch of the Challenger. Gibson, along with two other members of this crew, began training at JSC in July in 1978. He will be joined by Astronauts Vance D. Brand, commander; and Bruce McCandless II, Ronald E. McNair and Robert L. Stewart, all mission specialists. Brand and McCandless came aboard as NASA astronauts in April 1966.