120th Space Shuttle Mission Lifts Off

The space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew lifted off Tuesday, Oct. 23, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:38 a.m. EDT to continue construction of the International Space Station. This is Discovery’s 34th flight and the 120th flight for all the shuttle missions.

During the 14-day mission Discovery’s crew will continue construction of the space station with the installation of the Harmony connecting module. The crew, led by Commander Pam Melroy, will conduct five spacewalks four by shuttle crew members and one by the station’s Expedition 16 crew.

Discovery is scheduled to dock with the station on Thursday, Oct. 25. The addition of the Harmony module sets the stage for the arrival of new research laboratories from the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in upcoming shuttle missions. The crew will also move a segment of the station’s backbone and its solar arrays to a permanent position at the end of the truss’ left side.

Joining Melroy on the STS-120 crew are Pilot George Zamka, mission specialists Scott Parazynski, Doug Wheelock, Stephanie Wilson, Daniel Tani and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Tani will serve as mission specialist aboard Discovery and join the Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, who arrived at the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Oct. 12.

Having just completed a five month stay on the station, resident Clayton Anderson will return with Discovery’s crew at the conclusion of this latest shuttle mission.

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