CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Shuttle Discovery seemed to float through the morning mist to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center Monday.
Inching along at less than 1 mph, the shuttle made its last trip before heading into space.
Discovery is scheduled to launch at about 6:45 a.m. EST (11:45 GMT) on March 8.
In preparation for that flight, half the crew arrived Monday to participate in routine training. The second half is to arrive today.
The shuttle will act as a cargo ship and space taxi for space station Alpha. In its cargo bay will be the Leonardo cargo carrier and more equipment racks for the growing station.
The reusable module will be attached to the station, unloaded and put back in the shuttle for a return to Earth.
Discovery also will carry Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev and astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms to the station. The three are the second expedition crew of the outpost.
Bill Shepherd, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, the first station crew, are to ride home on Discovery. They have been onboard Alpha since Nov. 2, 2000.
Jim Wetherbee will command the Discovery flight, with James Kelly making his first flight as pilot. Andy Thomas, who lived aboard Mir for four months, and Paul Richards round out the crew.
Discovery will be making its second trip to Alpha since October, a launch rate NASA is counting on continuing to build and sustain the international space project. Alpha will cost between $60 billion and $95 billion by the time it's completed in 2006. The mission already has been delayed almost a month thanks to various problems. Since Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California in October, it took technicians longer to get it back to Kennedy Space Center and prepare it for the upcoming mission.
Questions about cables on Atlantis' booster rockets forced another delay in Discovery's launch. Atlantis was pulled into the Vehicle Assembly Building for inspections. Discovery had to wait for inspections of its own rockets before heading out to the launch pad.
It is scheduled to make another launch in early July to the station before heading to Boeing's Palmdale, Calif. plant for its regular overhaul.
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