Launch Rehearsal Counting Down

Endeavour astronauts were strapped into their shuttle seats on launch pad 39A for this morning's countdown dress rehearsal.

The shuttle's crew compartment hatch was scheduled to be closed around 9:30 a.m. The mock countdown should conclude by 11 a.m., when the crew will practice an abort scenario simulating a fire or other emergency at the pad.

The test run comes just over two weeks before Endeavour's targeted Nov. 14 launch to the International Space Station, and concludes training called the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.

Earlier this morning, the seven-member crew dressed in their orange partial-pressure launch-and-entry suits. Around 7:45 a.m., the astronauts walked out of their crew quarters building, waved to assembled media and space center employees, and boarded NASA's Astrovan for a ride to the launch pad.

A SWAT team and armed helicopter escorted the van, just as they would on launch day.

When the countdown ends, the crew will practice how they would escape from the launch pad called a "Mode 1 Egress."

Still in their heavy launch spacesuits, they'll cross a platform at the launch tower's 195-foot level and jump into slide-wire baskets that can fit up to three astronauts.

If a latch is triggered, the baskets would whisk the astronauts to the ground near the launch pad bunker in which they would take shelter. Then, if time allowed, the crew would ride an M113 armored personnel carrier to safety.

The seven-member crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, and will return to Houston this afternoon.

NASA plans to announce an official launch date and time for the mission Thursday evening.

IMAGE NOTES: Click on the images twice to fully enlarge them. Above, the Endeavour crew leaves their crew quarters to board NASA's Astrovan for a ride to launch pad 39A this morning. Below, the crew poses for a photo in front of the Astrovan. From left, the crew includes mission specialists Sandra Magnus, Shane Kimbrough, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Steve Bowen and Don Pettit, Pilot Eric Boe and Commander Chris Ferguson.