STS-133 Commander Steve Lindsey and his crew of five astronauts are at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for their Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT and related training. Several days of in-depth training will be capped off with a full launch day run-through aboard space shuttle Discovery on Friday morning.
Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Michael Barratt, Nicole Stott, Alvin Drew and Tim Kopra flew to Kennedy from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Tuesday afternoon. They landed at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility aboard NASA T-38 jets, the sleek, white supersonic aircraft astronauts use to keep their aerial skills up between missions.
While at Kennedy this week, the astronauts will go through several training sessions, talk with the news media and conduct the practice launch countdown. The astronauts will return to Houston Friday afternoon.