Discovery crew coming to KSC as shuttle nears roll to launch pad

The last planned seven-person shuttle crew is expected to fly into Kennedy Space Center tonight and spend the week here training for a targeted April 5 launch to the International Space Station.

Led by Alan Poindexter, who piloted Atlantis two years ago, the crew is scheduled to arrive around 7 p.m. in a fleet of T-38 training jets. You can watch it live here -- just click on the NASA TV box at right to open a video player.

Joining Poindexter will be pilot Jim Dutton and mission specialists Clay Anderson, Rick Mastracchio, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The mission will be the first spaceflight for Dutton, Metcalf-Lindenburger and Yamazaki, and the third for Mastracchio and Wilson. Anderson shuttled to and from a five-month tour on the space station in 2007.

The crew is in town for training that will culminate in a full countdown dress rehearsal Friday morning, called the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.

They'll also practice emergency escape procedures at launch pad 39A and landing a Shuttle Training Aircraft on KSC's three-mile runway.

The 131st shuttle mission -- one of four remaining -- will deliver a cylindrical "moving van" filled with science experiments and supplies. Three planned spacewalks will install an ammonia tank assembly, replace a rate gyro assembly and bring home a Japanese science experiment positioned outside the station.

The crew will arrive about a day before Discovery is scheduled to roll to its launch pad. The roughly six-hour, 3.5-mile trek from the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building is scheduled to start at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday (date corrected from earlier post to reflect weather delay).

IMAGE: Attired in training versions of their shuttle launch and entry suits on Sept. 14, the STS-131 crew members took a break for a portrait in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center. From the left are Clay Anderson, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, all mission specialists; James Dutton Jr., pilot; Alan Poindexter, commander; and mission specialists Stephanie Wilson and Rick Mastracchio. Credit: NASA.