Stock Photo - 07/16/1999 ___ STS_93 Mission Specialist Michel Tognini of France, with the Centre National d´Etudes Spatiales CNES, prepares to leave the T_38 jet aircraft that brought him to KSC´s Shuttle Landing Facility. He and other crew members Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeffrey S. Ashby, and Mission Specialists Steven A. Hawley Ph.D. and Catherine G. Cady Coleman Ph.D. are arriving for pre_launch activities. Tognini is making his inaugural Shuttle flight. The primary mission of STS_93 is the release of the Chandra X_ray Observatory, which will allow scientists from around the world to study some of the most distant, powerful and dynamic objects in the universe. The new telescope is 20 to 50 times more sensitive than any previous X_ray telescope and is expected to unlock the secrets of supernovae, quasars and black holes