STS-96 Mission Specialist Valery Ivanovich Tokarev releases a slidewire basket part of emergency egress training.

At the 195-foot level of Launch Pad 39B, STS-96 Mission Specialist Valery Ivanovich Tokarev releases a slidewire basket, part of emergency egress training. The STS-96 crew are taking part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities which also provide simulated countdown exercises and opportunities to inspect the mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay. The other crew members are Commander Kent V. Rominger, Pilot Rick Douglas Husband and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D.), Tamara E. Jernigan (Ph.D.), Daniel Barry (M.D., Ph.D.) and Julie Payette, with the Canadian Space. STS-96, which is scheduled for liftoff on May 20 at 9:32 a.m., is a logistics and resupply mission for the International Space Station, carrying such payloads as a Russian crane, the Strela; a U.S.-built crane; the Spacehab Oceaneering Space System Box (SHOSS), a logistics items carrier; and STARSHINE, a student-led experiment