Discovery’s Night Launch
Space Shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven astronauts lifted off Saturday from Kennedy Space Center at 8:47 p.m. EST. After reaching orbit, Discovery’s crew set to work to open the payload bay doors, set up computers and equipment and check out the shuttle’s robotic arm. Heat shield inspections will begin Sunday with a station docking scheduled for Monday at 5:05 p.m.
"We have five people who just haven't stopped smiling yet," commander Mark Polansky said after Discovery reached orbit, according to The Associated Press.
The STS-116 crew members will dock to the International Space Station, install the new P5 truss structure and perform three spacewalks to rewire the station for electricity generated by a solar array delivered in September.
STS-116 will also swap crew members when mission specialist Sunita Williams becomes a flight engineer for Expedition 14. Taking Williams' place aboard Discovery for the ride home is European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter who has lived aboard the station since July.
The launch was the first at night since the Columbia disaster in 2003, when foam shedding from an external fuel tank during launch damaged the orbiter, leading to a catastrophic failure when the spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
More photos on NASA's web site
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