Watch the STS-131 Shuttle Mission Launch LiveUpdated with Video of Launch

**2.21PM** I've replaced the live player with video of the launch.

The feed for this is courtesy of SpaceVidCast. I will replace the live feed with a recorded video as soon as it becomes available. (You can watch the entire mission unfold at SpaceVidCast, where they will have 24/7 coverage for the duration).


STS-131 (ISS assembly flight 19A)[4] is the next scheduled mission of Space Shuttle Discovery, targeted for launch 5 April 2010 at 6:21 AM EDT. There is only a ten minute launch window.


The primary payload is a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module loaded with supplies and equipment for the station. The mission will also remove and replace an ammonia tank assembly outside the station and return a Lightweight Adapter Plate Assembly (LWAPA) plate, located on the Columbus module. The mission also includes several on-board payloads; this mission has the most payloads since STS-107.








Commander Alan Poindexter will lead the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery. Jim Dutton will serve as the pilot. Mission Specialists are Rick Mastracchio, Clay Anderson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.


Discovery will deliver a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks to be transferred to laboratories on the International Space Station. The mission will feature three spacewalks.


Mastracchio and Anderson will conduct three six-and-a-half-hour-long spacewalks on flight days 5, 7 and 9 to replace an ammonia tank assembly, retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior and switch out a rate gyro assembly on the S0 element of the station’s truss.


STS-131 is the 33rd shuttle mission to the station.