Discovery astronauts headed to KSC

The six American astronauts who will fly aboard Discovery on NASA's next shuttle mission are heading to Kennedy Space Center today to inspect the spaceship and equipment they'll use on the agency's second post-Columbia test flight.

Flying in two waves aboard sleek, white T-38 training jets, the astronauts include mission commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Mark Kelly and mission specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers.

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter will taxi up to the International Space Station with Discovery's crew and remain on the orbiting outpost under the provisions of an ESA contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Once at KSC, Lindsey and his NASA crewmates will head to the Space Station Processing Facility. There, they will inspect a replacement for a damaged cable system that is designed to enable a Mobile Transporter rail car to move along the central truss of the outpost.

The station's Canadian-built robot arm rides atop the Mobile Transporter rail car and moves along the central truss to positions where its can be used to carry out station assembly work.

A cable that relays power and computer commands to the rail car was inadvertently severe by an emergency cutting device in December. The cable reel mechanism will be replaced by Fossum and Sellers during one of three spacewalks that will be carried out on the Discovery mission. The repair work must be completed before NASA can resume station construction later this year.

On Friday, the astronauts will be in Bay 3 of the Orbiter Processing Facility, where they will don bunny suits and inspect Discovery's 60-foot-long payload bay as well as the shuttle's 50-foot robot arm and an equally lengthy extension boom.

The sensor-laden boom will be used to inspect the shuttle's composite carbon wing panels and nosecap for damage after Discovery reaches orbit.

A cockpit inspection will follow on Saturday.

NASA still has not set an official launch date for the Discovery mission. The agency hopes to launch the test flight during a window that extends from May 3 through May 23.