Space Shuttle Discovery STS-131

Space Shuttle Discovery 131 is the 131st shuttle flight and Discovery’s 38th flight. STS-131 is the second shuttle flight in 2010. STS-131 will mark the first time that two Japanese astronauts, Naoko Yamazaki from the Shuttle crew, and Soichi Noguchi on the ISS, have been in space together.

The primary payload is a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module loaded with supplies and equipment for the International Space Station. The mission will also remove and replace an ammonia tank assembly outside the station and return a Lightweight Adapter Plate Assembly (LWAPA) plate, located on the Columbus module. The mission also includes several on-board payloads; this mission has the most payloads since STS-107.

Launch: 6:21 a.m. EDT - April 5, 2010
Orbiter: Discovery
Mission Number: STS-131 (131st space shuttle flight)
Launch Window: 10 minutes
Launch Pad: 39A
Mission Duration: 14 days
Landing Site: KSC
Inclination/Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles
Primary Payload: 33rd station flight (19A), Multi-Purpose Logistics Module

Commander Alan Poindexter will lead the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery. Jim Dutton will serve as the pilot. Mission Specialists are Rick Mastracchio, Clay Anderson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Discovery will deliver a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks to be transferred to laboratories on the International Space Station. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

Mastracchio and Anderson will conduct three six-and-a-half-hour-long spacewalks on flight days 5, 7 and 9 to replace an ammonia tank assembly, retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior and switch out a rate gyro assembly on the S0 element of the station’s truss.

1. Alan Poindexter (Commander) (2nd spaceflight)
2. James Dutton (Pilot) (1st spaceflight)
3. Richard Mastracchio (Mission Specialist) (3rd spaceflight)
4. Dorothy M. Metcalf-Lindenburger (Mission Specialist)
5. Stephanie Wilson ((Mission Specialist) (1st spaceflight)
6. Naoko Yamazaki (Mission Specialist) (JAXA) 1st spaceflight)
7. Clayton Anderson (Mission Specialist) (2nd spaceflight)

Did you know?

 * Metcalf-Lindenburger is one of the three former school teachers selected as mission specialists in the 2004 Educator Astronaut Class.

 * STS-131 will be only the third mission in the Space Shuttle program to carry three female astronauts. Missions STS-40 and STS-96 were the first and the second.

Related:

• Space Shuttle Books

• Books on Telescopes

• Space Shuttle Model: Includes all types of merchandise

• Shuttle Missions Patch Set

• Space Shuttle Video and DVD:
  - Hail Columbia (IMAX) (1982) from Amazon.com (dvd, vhs) and Amazon.co.uk dvd
  - First U.S. Space Shuttle Mission Video (1981) from Amazon.com