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The seven astronauts who will fly space shuttle Discovery to the International Space

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Station recently completed a full launch dress rehearsal, known as the Terminal

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Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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The crew members arrived in their T-38 jets Jan. 19, and after a short briefing,

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headed off to Launch Pad 39B to practice driving M-113 armored personnel carriers.

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Veteran astronaut Lee Archambault will command the STS-119 flight, assisted by

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Pilot Tony Antonelli, Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve

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Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata.

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Late in the afternoon, Archambault and Antonelli took to the skies in NASA's Shuttle

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Training Aircraft to practice landing a jet that handles much like the space shuttle.

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The next day, the astronauts took part in safety training at the 195-foot level of Launch Pad 39A.

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The crew also inspected Discovery's payload bay with the S6 truss and U.S. solar

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arrays tucked securely inside.

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On the final day of training, the crew members suited up and checked the fit of their

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flight suits, helmets and gloves. They left the Operations and Checkout Building

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waving to a crowd of well-wishers and made their way out to the pad.

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After all the crew members were seated in Discovery's flight deck, technicians briefly closed the hatch.

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After wrapping up three days of intensive training, the astronauts left Kennedy for

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NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to continue training for this mission 
to power up the International Space Station.

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