spacetoday.net: Shuttle cleared for May 31 launch

Posted: Tue, May 20, 2008, 6:02 AM ET (1002 GMT)

NASA shuttle managers approved plans Monday to launch the space shuttle Discovery on a mission to the International Space Station at the end of this month despite continuing concerns about the safety of the station's Soyuz spacecraft. Discovery is scheduled to launch on mission STS-124 at 5:02 pm EDT (2102 GMT) on May 31. The primary purpose of the mission is to install the main elements of the Japanese lab module Kibo to the station. In addition, the mission will replace ISS crew member Garrett Reisman with Gregory Chamitoff. NASA had considered either delaying the mission or not bringing Reisman to the station until Russia better understands why the last two Soyuz missions have ended in ballistic reentries, but elected to go forward since Chamitoff would only use Soyuz in the event of an emergency evacuation.