CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Discovery and four astronauts are poised to rocket off on a 21st-Century taxi flight today, ferrying a new crew to the International Space Station before returning to Earth with three boarders who have been there since March.
And when hatches swing open between Discovery and the station, three of the shuttle astronauts will float into a bustling 17-story research complex that was but a vacant two-room outpost when they last visited.
"I think that's going to be exciting," said Discovery mission specialist Dan Barry, who flew up to the station in 1999 when the outpost comprised just a Russian space tug and an American docking module. "I've been to the station once before, but it was unoccupied and much smaller. So I'm thrilled to have the chance to go up and see people really working on the space station."
"It was a very small baby station when we left it," added Discovery pilot Rick Sturckow, who helped link those first two building blocks in orbit in late 1998. "So I'm really looking forward to seeing what now is just a really first-class facility that's going to get even better in the future."
With a potential solid rocket booster problem now resolved, Discovery and its crew are scheduled to blast off from Kennedy Space Center at 5:38 p.m. EDT (2138 GMT) today, setting sail on a mission to deliver a third full-time resident crew to the station. Weather forecasters predict a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions during the five-minute launch window.Incoming station skipper Frank Culbertson and two Russian cosmonauts -- Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin -- will relieve outpost commander Yuri Usachev and flight engineers Susan Helms and James Voss, who are scheduled to fly home Aug. 21 aboard Discovery.
Coming just two weeks after NASA and its 15 international partners finished the first full phase of a $60 billion station construction project, the shuttle flight will take place amid a preplanned pause in outpost assembly.
During a flurry of 14 U.S. and Russian missions in the past 13 months, shuttle astronauts and two resident crews outfitted the station's crew quarters and added a skeletal truss, a U.S. electric power tower, an American science lab, a Canadian robot arm and an airlock.
Now equipped with five pressurized wings, the station stretches 171 feet (52 meters) from end to end and sports massive American solar arrays that have a wingspan of 240 feet (73 meters). Inside, the outpost contains as much living space as a standard three-bedroom house.
"It is astounding to me, really, what we've done in the last year," said NASA flight director Mark Ferring. "And with all this flurry of activity, it's time that we restock the station and kind of take a breath for a while, and that's a little bit of what's happening on our mission."
Flying up to the station aboard Discovery: An Italian moving van dubbed "Leonardo."
Named for Leonardo da Vinci, the cargo carrier is filled with more than three tons of research apparatus, science experiments and provisions that the so-called Expedition Three crew will need during a planned four-month research tour aboard the outpost.
Said Culbertson: "We have a lot of baggage."
"There's food. There's clothing. There are experimental supplies. There are replacement parts, and a lot of other equipment," added shuttle mission commander Scott Horowitz. "You can imagine to support a crew of three on the station and do all the science that you need to do for four to six months requires a lot of equipment."
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