Preparations Continue for Next Return to Flight Mission
Discovery is towed into the Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3. Image credit: NASA/KSC
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The crew of STS-121 is getting ready for the second Return to Flight mission aboard space shuttle Discovery, participating in proficiency training flights and rendezvous simulations. NASA is currently targeting no earlier than March 2006 for launch, and is evaluating how the impacts of Hurricane Katrina will affect the launch schedule.
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The first Return to Flight mission, STS-114, wrapped up its successful flight on Aug 9 with a pre-dawn landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Discovery returned Aug. 21 to Kennedy Space Center atop a modified Boeing 747 called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The shuttle is now in the Orbiter Processing Facility, where it will be readied for mission STS-121.
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Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. 
Space Shuttle Discovery has successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on mission STS-128.  Discovery took off at 11:59 p.m. (EDT) for a 13-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The shuttle's payload consists of a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module or 'Leonardo' and a Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier. The treadmill named for comedian Stephen Colbert also is aboard Discovery. Colbert had previously won a contest to have one of the modules named after him, but officials at NASA decided on the name Tranquility.

"Space Shuttle Discovery completed a flawless ascent into orbit Friday night to begin a two-day chase of the International Space Station," said NASA in a statement on their website.

After flying up on Discovery, astronaut Nicole Stott will trade places with station resident Tim Kopra, who went into space last month aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour.