Discovery Cleared For Launch March 8

SPACE TRAVEL

Shuttle Discovery Cleared For Dawn Launch March 8

File photo of Discovery rollout August 2000. NASA image

Houston - Feb. 28, 2001
The launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery has been set for 6:42 a.m. EST March 8 on a mission to the International Space Station that will make NASA's first crew shift change in orbit and carry an Italian-built Station logistics carrier filled with laboratory experiments and equipment.

"This will be the fifth Space Shuttle launch in the past seven months, and each of those missions has been safe, fully successful and, relative to their challenge and complexity, almost deceptively smooth," said Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore. "That record is a testament to the excellent work that has been done by all members of the Space Shuttle and Space Station teams coast to coast. Discovery is ready and so are we."

Discovery's flight, designated Space Shuttle mission STS-102, will be commanded by Jim Wetherbee. The pilot will be Jim Kelly and Andy Thomas and Paul Richards will serve as mission specialists. Discovery also will carry the second expedition crew -- Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms -- to the International Space Station.

At the end of its almost 12-day flight, Discovery will bring home the first Station crew, Commander Bill Shepherd, Pilot Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, completing more than four months spent in orbit aboard the complex.

Discovery also will take aloft the first Station logistics carrier, an Italian-built logistics module named Leonardo that will be filled with the first major laboratory experiments as well as key equipment.

Discovery is planned to land March 20 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

SPACE TRAVEL

Shuttle Flyaround Makes For Good Eye Candy
ISS Desk 1

Washington (AFP) Feb 19, 2001
The shuttle Atlantis undocked Friday from the International Space Station and headed back to Earth after successfully completing the assembly of a US-built space laboratory. At 1406 GMT, as the space station overflew New Guinea, co-pilot Mark Polansky gently eased Atlantis some 150 metres (450 feet) away from the station before carrying out a semi-circular 40-minute fly around to take photographs and video footage.

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