Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-131)

The seven-member STS-131 crew headed to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery after its launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 6:21 a.m. EDT. The liftoff came 45 minutes before sunrise Monday, Apr. 5, and lit up Florida’s Space Coast sky. The STS-131 Commander is Alan Poindexter; Jim Dutton is the Pilot and the Mission Specialists are Rick Mastracchio, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Clay Anderson and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. Dutton, Lindenburger and Yamazaki are making their first spaceflights.