NASA crew starts training for liftoff
NASA’s second female commander and her six crew mates flew into Kennedy Space Center for training and a rehearsal for a planned Oct. 23 liftoff.
Cmdr. Pamela Melroy becomes the second woman to lead a shuttle mission, following in the footsteps of retired astronaut Eileen Collins. Melroy will oversee shuttle Discovery’s planned 14-day flight to deliver and install a new module to the International Space Station.
Discovery’s visit coincides with command of the space station being turned over to a woman for the first time in the program’s history. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is scheduled for launch Wednesday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket along with her cosmonaut crew mate, Yuri Malenchenko, and Malaysia’s first astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
“It’s a pretty big week for human spaceflight, and we’re excited to be part of it,” Melroy said after she and her crew made a sunset landing at the spaceport.
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