WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

STS-89 Mission Specialist Andrew Thomas, Ph.D., smiles and waves his Australian hat to the crowd outside of the Operations and Checkout Building at KSC as he heads toward the Astrovan that will transport him to Launch Pad 39A. There, the Space Shuttle Endeavour awaits to take the STS-89 crew to Russia's Mir space station, where Dr. Thomas, who was born and educated in South Australia, will succeed David Wolf, M.D. STS-89, slated for a 9:48 p.m. EST liftoff Jan. 22, is the eighth docking with the Russian Space Station Mir, the first Mir docking for Endeavour (all previous dockings were made by Atlantis), and the first launch of 1998.