STS 61-A crew leave operations & checkout facility for launch pad

61A-S-015 (30 Oct 1985) --- A record number of crewmembers to serve on a Shuttle mission walks from the operations and checkout facility to a crew transfer van en route to Launch Pad 39A where the Challenger awaits the 61-A/Spacelab D-1launch. Leading the way is Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., mission commander, as Steven R. Nagel, pilot, trails the blue-suited team members. At center are James F. Buchli, Bonnie J. Dunbar and Guion S. Bluford Jr.--all mission specialists. They are flanked by Wubbo J. Ockels and Ernst Messerschmid on the left and Reinhard Furrer on the right. John W. Young, chief of the astronaut office at JSC and George W.S. Abbey, director of flight crew operations at JSC, follow the crew. Richard W. Nygren, assistant to the director, is in background. Messerschmid and Furrer are German scientists and Ockels is a Dutch scientist; and the three will be working with NASA's three mission specialists in the D-1 science module during the week-long flight.