The crew of STS-128 is taking their assigned seats inside the shuttle tonight in preparation for launch at 1:36 a.m. EDT. A team of specialists is helping the astronauts as they climb into place. Commander Rick “C.J.” Sturckow was first inside the orbiter, taking the seat in the front of the flight deck in the left-hand seat. Three more astronauts will join him on the flight deck and the three other members of the crew will sit on the lower level of the shuttle, called the middeck.
