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STS-121 Mission Overview

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	SHUTTLE UPDATE: Discovery Returns!
	LEFT: STS-121 crew portrait. RIGHT: STS-121 Mission Patch.

Mission info from NASA, ESA, and Spaceflight Now! websites

Return To Flight testing continues
The crew of space shuttle Discovery will continue to test new equipment and procedures that increase the safety of space shuttles during the STS-121 mission to the International Space Station. It also will perform maintenance on the space station and deliver more supplies and cargo for future station expansion.

This mission is to carry on analysis of safety improvements that debuted on the Return to Flight mission, STS-114, and build upon those tests.

Discovery will bring a third crewmember to the station, European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter. This will be the first three-person crew since the Expedition 6 crew returned to Earth May 4, 2003. Without the space shuttle to ferry equipment to the station after the Columbia accident, only two people could be supported onboard until the necessary provisions were in place.

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