Discovery On Its Way

Space shuttle Discovery successfully launched on-time yesterday on its way to the International Space Station. The astronauts are already ahead of schedule and are proceeding with a scan of the orbiter's heat-shield, even though they do not have the laser-tipped probe that they have been using on the last several missions (their cargo was too much this time and they had to leave some things out).

Discovery is scheduled to dock with the ISS tomorrow at 1:52pm EDT. Once docked with the station, they will perform a more detailed analysis of the heat shield using a boom arm stored on the space station.