STS 114 Mission Commander Eileen Collins tries out one of the seats in the Rubber Room.

STS-114 Mission Commander Eileen Collins tries out one of the seats in the Rubber Room. Located under the launch pad, the steel dome Rubber Room floats on rubber isolators. It was the escape area used during the Apollo launches and it could not be removed when the pad was modified for the Shuttle. In case of an emergency on the pad, the astronauts would slide down the long vertical tube to the Rubber Room, strap themselves into the seats and wait for the danger to clear. The STS-114 mission is Logistics Flight 1, which is scheduled to deliver supplies and equipment plus the external stowage platform to the International Space Station.