The flight crew departs the Operations & Checkout Facility to take part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test TCDT activities.

The STS-106 flight crew departs the Operations & Checkout Facility to take part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities. The TCDT provides the crew with emergency egress training and opportunities to inspect their mission payload in the orbiter’s payload bay. Crew members taking part in the TCDT are, from left to right front to back, Commander Terrence W. Wilcutt, Pilot Scott D. Altman, Mission Specialists Yuri I. Malenchenko, Edward T. Lu, Richard A. Mastracchio, Boris V. Morukov and Daniel C. Burbank. Malenchenko and Morukov are with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. STS-106 is scheduled to launch Sept. 8, 2000, at 8:31 a.m. EDT from Launch Pad 39B. On the 11-day mission, the seven-member crew will perform support tasks on orbit, transfer supplies and prepare the living quarters in the newly arrived Zvezda Service Module. The first long-duration crew, dubbed “Expedition One,” is due to arrive at the Station in late fall