Discovery Lifts Off for Space Station

Space shuttle Discovery soared into space, carrying a new crew to the international space station to relieve the three men who have been toiling in orbit for the last four months.

The shuttle will catch up with the space station early Saturday, and the fresh crew and the weary one will immediately begin trading places.

It was a smooth countdown at the Kennedy Space Center and a flawless climb to orbit.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev and American astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms will spend the next four months aboard the space station.