Article Posted on : - Mar 06, 2010

Image above: Seated are Commander Alan Poindexter (right) and Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. From the left (standing) are Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Naoko Yamazaki and Clayton Anderson. NASA Photo

FLORIDA (BNS): The STS-131 astronauts completed the ‘Launch Rehearsal’ of the mission which is scheduled to be launched on April 5, 2010.

According to a US space agency NASA, astronauts departed from the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, heading back to their home base at NASA's Johnson Space Center in T-38 jets on Friday.

Commander Alan Poindexter is set to lead the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery.

Discovery will carry a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the station. The mission has three planned spacewalks, with work to include replacing an ammonia tank assembly, retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior, and switching out a rate gyro assembly on the S0 segment of the station’s truss structure.

STS-131 will be the 33rd shuttle mission to the station.