KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At the Shuttle Landing Facility, Launch Director Mike Leinbach welcomes (from left) STS-116 Mission Specialists Joan Higginbotham, Robert Curbeam and Commander Mark Polansky upon their arrival at KSC aboard T-38 jet aircraft for the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on Dec. 7. On the mission, the crew will deliver truss segment, P5, to the International Space Station and begin the intricate process of reconfiguring and redistributing the power generated by two pairs of U.S. solar arrays. The P5 will be mated to the P4 truss that was delivered and attached during the STS-115 mission in September. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Location Kennedy Space Center, FL
Date December 3, 2006