Posted: Thu, Mar 8, 2001, 8:07 AM ET (1307 GMT)
The space shuttle Discovery lifted off Thursday morning on a mission to replace the crew of the International Space Station. Mission STS-102 got underway with a flawless launch at 6:42 am EST (1142 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a virtually problem-free countdown. Discovery is scheduled to dock with ISS at 12:32 am EST (0532 GMT) Saturday, March 10. The primary purpose of the mission is to replace the existing Expedition One crew on ISS, Bill Shepherd, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, with the Expedition Two crew, Yuri Usachev, James Voss, and Susan Helms, who lifted off aboard Discovery. The shuttle also carries supplies and equipment for the station in an Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module dubbed "Leonardo", the first flight of such a module. That equipment will be used to help outfit the Destiny lab module added to the station during the STS-98 mission last month.

Related Links:

•  NASA Human Spaceflight mission information
•  Spaceflight Now mission status center