KSC-98dc552

Space Shuttle Discovery sits atop a mobile launcher platform at Launch Complex 39A after its move this morning from Vehicle Assembly Building high bay 1, where it was mated to the first Space Shuttle super lightweight external tank/solid rocket booster stack. This unusual image was taken from the 95-foot level of the pad as the Orbiter Access Arm supporting the white room (arm on right) and the External Tank Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm were moved into place on the orbiter and its stack. Discovery will be launched on mission STS-91, concluding Phase I of the joint U.S.-Russian International Space Station Program, on June 2 with a launch window opening around 6:10 p.m. EDT. This will be the ninth Shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station Mir, but the first Mir docking for Discovery. The STS-91 flight crew includes Commander Charles Precourt; Pilot Dominic Gorie; and Mission Specialists Wendy B. Lawrence; Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ph.D.; Janet Kavandi, Ph.D.; and Valery Ryumin, with the Russian Space Agency. Andrew Thomas, Ph.D., will be returning to Earth with the crew after living more than four months aboard Mir