KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Nearly 10 years after Challenger exploded and killed all seven crew members aboard, NASA is about to launch a shuttle with a communications satellite to replace the one destroyed in the accident.
Discovery is scheduled to lift off with five astronauts at 6:41 a.m. PDT today on a mission that was delayed by woodpecker damage to its booster. The $330-million Tracking and Data Relay Satellite will be used to transmit messages between the ground and spacecraft.
