Discovery mission key to International Space Station construction

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The next mission of the space shuttle Discovery set for liftoff Tuesday is critical to building the International Space Station, ferrying in the Harmony module key to installing the European lab Columbus and Japan's Kibo lab.

Harmony, a big Italian-made aluminum tube weighing in at 14.3 tonnes, will connect the two labs to the outpost and give it its almost final shape.

NASA plans to bring in the Columbus on an Atlantis shuttle flight December 6 and the Kibo early in 2008.

Discovery's crew of seven includes five men and two women, one of whom is Commander Pam Melroy, 46. The crew, which also includes an Italian, Paulo Nespoli, with the European Space Agency, was due to deliver a 16-tonne, 20-meter(yard)-long beam called P6.

Once in...