Discovery headed to launch pad Jan. 14

While NASA prepares to ferry shuttle Endeavour from California back to Kennedy Space Center, Discovery is on pace to roll to its launch pad in a little over a month.

Discovery is targeted to launch Feb. 12 on a 14-day mission to install the International Space Station's fourth and final set of American solar wings.

The wings will unfurl from a 60-foot truss segment called "S6" that will complete the station's central backbone when added to its starboard side. When completed, the backbone will measure 361 feet, longer than a football field.

The truss is expected to be placed into a payload canister on the same day Discovery rolls from its hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building, on Jan. 7.

The canister then will be transported to launch pad 39A on Jan. 11. Mounted on a mobile launcher platform, Discovery is expected to roll to the pad a few days later, on Jan. 14.

The shuttle's seven-person crew is scheduled to arrive at KSC on Jan. 19 for three days of training that includes a practice countdown, a review of launch pad escape procedures and practice shuttle landings.

Air Force Col. Lee Archambault, who piloted Atlantis during STS-117 in June 2007, will lead a crew including pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Koichi Wakata.

Swanson flew on STS-117 with Archambault. Phillips is a veteran of two prior spaceflights, STS-100 in 2001 and the space station's 11th expedition in 2005. Antonelli, Acaba and Arnold will be making their first spaceflight.

Wakata flew on STS-72 in 1996 and STS-92 in 2000. He will be the first Japanese astronaut to participate in a long-duration space station expedition.

He'll replace Sandra Magnus, who launched to the station Nov. 14 with Endeavour's crew and replaced Greg Chamitoff, who returned home with Endeavour Nov. 30.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to the images twice to fully enlarge them. Above in September, in Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3, space shuttle main engine No. 3 has been installed in shuttle Discovery. Each engine is 14 feet long, weighs about 6,700 pounds, and is 7.5 feet in diameter at the end of the nozzle. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis. Below, in November, the STS-119 crew members learn about the thermal protection system on the underside of space shuttle Discovery. In their blue suits are (from left) Pilot Tony Antonelli, Mission Specialists Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, Joseph Acaba and Koichi Wakata, Commander Lee Archambault and Mission Specialist John Phillips. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett