Discovery blasts off to international space station
Space shuttle Discovery has blasted off to rendezvous with the international space station, Alpha.
Discovery is carrying six astronauts and one cosmonaut as well as supplies for a six-week stay on Alpha.
The 12-day mission is to exchange three man crews with Alpha.
Discovery took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6.42 this morning and should reach the station early on Saturday.
"Looks like a beautiful day to go fly," launch director Mike Leinbach told the shuttle crew right before lift off.
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev and American astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms will move into the space station, relieving the orbiting outpost's first crew.
Voss and Yuri, the station's next commander, held up a small white sign with the words "Happy Women's Day!" printed in Russian and English.
Space station commander Bill Shepherd and his two Russian crewmates have been living aboard Alpha since the start of November, spending almost every day fixing or installing equipment.
Space shuttle Atlantis dropped off the $1.4 billion Destiny laboratory two weeks ago.
Discovery will deliver more lab systems along with the first batch of experiments.
