WEBVTT

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Intro music.

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NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida was the meeting place for six of the seven members of

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the STS-121 mission to participate in the Crew Equipment Interface Test.

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For two days in February, the astronauts were able to perform hands-on tasks with the flight hardware

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they'll use on Space Shuttle Discovery. The crew, outfitted in clean-room suits, inspected various

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elements of the orbiter -- testing hose connections, peering into wheel wells and taking a close

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look at the tiles and leading edge of the orbiter's reinforced carbon-carbon panels.

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Commander Steve Lindsey watched closely as Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson,

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Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum listened to the vehicle crew describe components of the shuttle.

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Discovery Pilot Mark Kelly crawled into the orbiter to check out the cockpit and its multitude

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of switches, dials and buttons. Working with the equipment on Earth gives the crew even

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further knowledge of the spacecraft they'll fly during the mission. STS-121 is the second

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return-to-flight mission to the International Space Station for Discovery, focusing on

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evaluating flight safety procedures, shuttle inspection and repair techniques.

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