Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-42) Poster

The mid-morning liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-42 was even prettier than a picture at the start of the first Shuttle mission of 1992. The seven-member crew is scheduled to spend seven days in space, mostly to conduct a variety of experiments in the International Microgravity Laboratory-1. The experiments will explore the effects of weightlessness on living organisms and materials processing. Liftoff was at 9:52 a.m. EST. The seven crew members are Commander Ronald J. Grabe, Pilot Stephen S. Oswald, Payload Commander and Mission Specialist Dr. Norman E. Thagard, Mission Specialists David C. Hilmers and William F. Readdy, and Payload Specialists Dr. Roberta L. Bondar of the Canadian Space Agency and Ulf D. Merbold of the European Space Agency.