Discovery Launch a Milestone for Women in Space

Cape Canaveral, Florida – April 6, 2010 — Space shuttle Discovery lit up the sky early Monday with a 6:21 a.m. EDT launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The launch began a 13-day flight to the International Space Station and the second of five shuttle missions planned for 2010. This space flight also is a milestone for women in space; there are now more women in space (four) than ever before. The Discovery crew includes females Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger and Stephanie Wilson, who are both mission specialists, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. The three will join the lone female astronaut, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who is currently on board the orbiting space station. NASA reported that the only problem with the launch was that the shuttle's Ku-Band antenna did not successfully complete its standard initial activation sequence and was not operational. The dish-shaped antenna is used for high data rate communications with the ground, including television, and for the shuttle's radar system that is used during rendezvous with the ISS. However, NASA reported that Discovery can safely rendezvous and dock with the station and successfully complete all of its planned mission objectives without use of the Ku-Band antenna, if needed. Discovery docked with the ISS at 3:44 a.m. April 7, delivering science experiments, equipment and supplies. Throughout the mission, the crew will conduct three spacewalks to switch out a gyroscope on the station's truss, install a spare ammonia storage tank, and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station's exterior. Inside the shuttle's cargo bay is the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, a pressurized "moving van" that will be attached to the station temporarily on April 7 and returned to the shuttle's cargo bay on April 15. The module is filled with supplies, new crew sleeping quarters and science racks that will be transferred to the station's laboratories. "The crew of STS-131 is really honored to represent the thousands of dedicated people that make up the entire NASA, JAXA and contractor workforces," Commander Alan Poindexter said shortly before liftoff. Other STS-131 crew members include Pilot Jim Dutton and Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Clay Anderson. Dutton, Lindenburger and Yamazaki are making their first spaceflights. These three astronauts are the last rookies who will fly aboard the shuttle before its planned retirement. Anderson and Yamazaki plan to tweet from orbit during the mission. They can be followed, respectively, at http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Clay and http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Naoko. In addition, Lindenburger is the last of three teachers selected as mission specialists in the 2004 Educator-Astronaut class to fly on the shuttle. The educational activities on the STS-131 mission will focus on robotics and promoting careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. For NASA's teacher and student resources and activities related to robotics, click here. Discovery's first landing opportunity at Kennedy is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on April 18.

Space shuttle Discovery lifts off early Monday morning. Photo credit: NASA Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki will join Tracy Caldwell Dyson at the International Space Station, between them becoming the most women ever in orbit at the same time. Photo credit: Gary I Rothstein/EPA The STS-131 crew includes, sitting, Commander Alan Poindexter, right, and Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. Standing, from the left are Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Naoko Yamazaki and Clayton Anderson. Photo credit: NASA

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