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Poor Weather Delays Shuttle Launch Until Saturday

ISS014-E-08320 : Expedition 14 crew dining Image above: Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria (right) and Flight Engineers Thomas Reiter and Mikhail Tyurin share a meal at the galley in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TO VIEW PICTURE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.htm

The arrival of Space Shuttle Discovery and the STS-116 crew has been delayed two days. An unfavorable weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center in Florida forced mission managers to pass on Thursday’s launch attempt. Discovery is now slated to lift off at 8:47 p.m. EST Saturday and dock with the orbital outpost on Monday.

The STS-116 crew will deliver the P5 truss segment and conduct three spacewalks to install it and reconfigure and redistribute the power generated by the station’s U.S. solar arrays. The STS-116 crew’s weeklong stay will also feature the first station crew rotation during a shuttle mission in four years. NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams will join the Expedition 14 crew and European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter will return to Earth on Discovery.

For the latest news and information on STS-116, visit the main shuttle page. + Read more

+ Read more about Expedition 14 + View crew's daily timelines

NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have named two astronauts and two cosmonauts to the next International Space Station crew, known as Expedition 15. Astronauts Clayton Anderson and Daniel Tani will travel to the station next year and work as flight engineers. Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Dr. Oleg Kotov will spend six months aboard the orbiting laboratory.

+ Read more about Expedition 15