Discovery in Orbit, Chasing Space Station

Space shuttle Discovery turned midnight into noon along the central Florida coast with launch at 2359 EDT beginning its 37th mission - a flight to deliver supplies and research facilities to the International Space Station and its six-person crew.

Commander Rick Sturckow, Pilot Kevin Ford and Mission Specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas Nicole Stott and Christer Fuglesang representing the European Space Agency reached orbit eight and a half minutes later as the space station flew 225 miles up, southwest of Tasmania.

Aboard the station watching Discovery's launch on a live feed from Mission Control were Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency and Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency.

Following Discovery's docking Sunday night, Stott officially becomes a station crew member when she and Kopra swap places shortly before midnight. Kopra will return home aboard Discovery after a month and a half aboard the station.

Shortly after reaching orbit, Discovery's crew began procedures to ensure the spaceship is healthy for on-orbit operations and opened the payload bay doors at about 0130 Saturday. The crew's launch day ended with a thorough checkout of the robotic arm and survey of the payload bay before heading to bed about 0630 Saturday.

Following wakeup at 1429 Saturday, the crew spent the majority of the day assessing the health of Discovery's wing leading edge panels and nosecap using the boom/sensor extension and checking out the spacesuits to be worn during three planned spacewalks later in the mission. The crew also will test rendezvous tools and prepare the docking system ahead of arrival at the station.

Overnight, the Flight Control Team reported the failure of one of two small steering jets that flank the orbiter nose due to a leak. This will have no impact to docking, other mission activities or entry, but the crew will close a manifold to isolate both jets and disable them from use for the remainder of the mission.

Pilot Kevin Ford will join Mission Specialists Pat Forrester and Jose Hernandez to perform the survey of the shuttle’s heat shield. Using the shuttle robotic arm and specialized cameras, they’ll commence with a well-established choreography to capture detailed video of the orbiter’s wing-leading edges and nose cap. The imagery will be reviewed by specialists to ensure there was no damage from liftoff.

With Commander Rick Sturckow at the controls, Discovery is scheduled to link up with the space station at 0803 Sunday. Discovery's mission is the 128th in shuttle program history and the 30th dedicated to station assembly, resupply and maintenance.

FMI: www.nasa.gov