Space shuttle Discovery lit up Florida’s Space Coast sky about 45 minutes before sunrise Monday with a 6:21 a.m. launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The launch began a 13-day flight to the International Space Station and the second of five shuttle missions planned for 2010.
Discovery is scheduled to dock to the space station at 3:44 a.m. on Wednesday, April 7. Discovery will deliver a multi-purpose Logistics Module filled with science racks to be transferred to laboratories on the International Space Station.
Commander Alan Poindexter leads the mission to the International Sports Station aboard space shuttle Discovery. The other members of the team are Pilot Jim Dutton and Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Clay Anderson and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. Dutton, Lindenburger and Yamazaki are making their first spaceflights. These three astronauts are the last rookies that will fly aboard the shuttle before its planned retirement.
The astronauts will spend 13 days in space and the mission will feature three space walks.
