Space Shuttle Discovery reaches the International Space Station

The space shuttle Discovery has reached the International Space Station. It took the shuttle two days to reach the space station.

Discovery is carrying Mission Specialist Sunita Williams who is of Indian origin. She would be staying on the ISS for 6 months.

NASA said that the STS-116 crew entered the station at 5:54 pm CST.

Sunita would be taking place of Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter who would be coming back with the crew that went to the station on this mission.

Sunita spoke on her mission: “I’ve always wanted to fly a long-duration mission. A long-duration spaceflight will supply answers … to what happens to the human body, how materials work in space.”

The crew is due to conduct three spacewalks to install the P5 structure and to reconfigure and redistribute power generated by the station.