Bowen to replace Kopra on Discovery crew

NASA astronaut Steve Bowen will replace Tim Kopra on Discovery's final flight, which remains targeted for a Feb. 24 launch from Kennedy Space Center.

Kopra was injured seriously enough in a Saturday bicycling accident that he could not perform his mission duties, including two planned spacewalks outside the International Space Station partnered with Al Drew.

The flight will be the third for Bowen, a 46-year-old Navy captain and former submariner who just flew aboard Atlantis on the most recent shuttle mission, which launched last May 14 and landed May 26. He has performed five spacewalks.

Kopra, a 47-year-old retired Army colonel, would have been making his second spaceflight. He launched to the space station July 15, 2009, aboard Endeavour and spent three months on the outpost with Expedition 20, performing one spacewalk. He returned home Sept. 11 on Discovery.

Discovery was scheduled to launch with a crew of six in early November but was delayed when cracks were found on the mid-section of the shuttle's external tank. Support beams on the tank are in the process of being repaired and modified before Discovery rolls back out to the launch pad.

IMAGE: Above, NASA astronaut Steve Bowen, STS-132 mission specialist, participated in the mission's first spacewalk outside the International Space Station on May 17, 2010. Below, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, STS-128 mission specialist, performed in-flight maintenance in a vestibule on the International Space Station on Sept. 5, 2009. Credit: NASA.