Shuttle taking new crew to space station

Discovery left behind a trail of smoke as it lifted off the launch pad.

By Richard Stenger
CNN

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- The space shuttle Discovery roared into the Florida skies late Friday afternoon, crammed with supplies, experiments and a new crew for the international space station.

Looming storm clouds threatened to scrub the launch as they had the day before. But the weather held and the five Americans and two Russians onboard began their swift ascent into space at 5:10 p.m. EDT.

In an unusual move, shuttle managers moved up the launch. Discovery lifted off five minutes earlier than scheduled, right at the beginning of a 10-minute launch window.

The early departure was to make sure the shuttle avoided stormy weather brewing south of the launch site.

VIDEO Watch the space shuttle Discovery lift off toward space station Alpha (August 10) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   RESOURCES Message Board: Space Exploration   Mission Guide: STS-105

"It was a first today," said NASA launch director Mike Leinbach, adding that the change "absolutely" placed no extra stress on the shuttle or the crew.

"Three-and-a-half hours before launch, we started talking about moving it up," he said.

A final decision was made about an hour before liftoff.

New residents for Alpha

The main objective for this mission is to deliver three new residents to space station Alpha and return the current inhabitants -- cosmonaut commander Yury Usachev and NASA astronauts Susan Helms and Jim Voss -- to Earth.

The new Alpha crew: Mikhail Tyurin, left, Frank Culbertson, center, and Vladimir Dezhurov

Usachev, Helms and Voss have lived on Alpha for five months. When told their relief crew was on the way, Helms replied casually, "copy, that," according to NASA.

The trio will be replaced by U.S. commander Frank Culbertson and Russian flight engineers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin.

Discovery's crew includes commander Scott Horowitz, pilot Rick Sturckow and mission specialists Patrick Forrester and Daniel Barry.

Forrester and Barry will conduct two spacewalks to add hardware and install experiments on the outside of the space station.

Shuttle making important furniture delivery

The shuttle also will deliver a bedroom suite that will be installed in the orbiting outpost's Destiny science laboratory. Currently, there are sleeping quarters for only two Alpha inhabitants. The third must settle for a makeshift bunk in Destiny.

Alpha crew members Susan Helms, left, Yury Usachev, center, and Jim Voss have been on the space station since March.

That the sleeping cabin will wind up in a vacant section of the $1.4 billion lab is perhaps fitting, considering that looming budget cuts have placed much of the ambitious scientific agenda planned for the station into a slumbering limbo.

Experiments on the U.S.-built Destiny module were to be the primary purpose for the space station, but $4 billion in construction cost overruns have prompted congressional lawmakers to consider scaling back NASA's budget for the station by $1 billion over the next four years.

A habitation module and emergency escape capsule have already become victims of the shrinking NASA coffers. The loss of the two planned additions means that Alpha will house three residents for some time, rather than seven as expected.

The small staff will have little time to devote to experiments, considering the demands of keeping the modular complex in working order.

Germs in space

Despite the challenges, NASA remains upbeat about the future of science on Alpha. Discovery will bring about 20 U.S. and Russian experiments to the station, doubling the current number.

Among the tests on tap is the first experiment to be mounted to the exterior of the station. More than 1,500 materials samples will remain outside, enduring punishing levels of solar radiation with no protection.

"The kind of things we're looking at, for example, are materials that provide radiation shielding that would be used on space missions, including manned ones to Mars," said William Kinard, a NASA scientist at the Langley Research Center managing the experiments.

The hapless subjects include plastics, mirrors, composites and living specimens like seeds, spores and bacteria. They are being checked for their space worthiness to better prepare for future explorations in space.

What kind of risk do the microbes pose to the space travelers?

"None whatsoever. The biological specimens are sealed with multiple seals inside containers. And the viruses that are being flown present absolutely no hazard to the crew," Kinard said.

Few visitors for new Alpha crew

While the current Alpha residents have greeted many visiting astronauts and cosmonauts -- and even space tourist Dennis Tito -- the new trio expects only one visit during their four-month stay, a Russian Soyuz crew that will deliver a fresh escape capsule.

The three-person Soyuz lifeboats must be replaced every six months. The visiting cosmonauts will return in the one now docked to the station.

Discovery is scheduled to dock with Alpha on Sunday. The shuttle is scheduled to return to Florida on August 22, bringing Usachev, Helms and Voss back to Earth.

Space station Alpha, a partnership of the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan, could cost in excess of $95 billion when completed later this decade.