20011776 Club
Storm closing in, Discovery launches early from the Cape
Seven astronauts head for the space station carrying a new crew and an Italian-built cargo hauler named Leonardo.
By August 2001, the International Space Station had been continuously occupied for nearly a year, and Expedition 2's crew was due for relief. Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on August 10 under Commander Scott Horowitz, moving up its launch time to beat an approaching storm. Three days later it docked, delivering Frank Culbertson, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin to begin Expedition 3 and packing Leonardo, a reusable Italian cargo module, full of supplies and science racks. Within a month, that same Expedition 3 crew watched smoke rise over Manhattan from three hundred miles up…
