One of NASA's two modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with the Space Shuttle orbiter Discovery on its back climbs out after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base, California. The Discovery was ferried from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 2, 2000, after extensive post-landing servicing and ferry flight preparations. STS-92 was the 100th mission since the fleet of four Space Shuttles began flying in 1981. (Due to schedule changes, missions are not always launched in the order that was originally planned.) The almost 13-day mission, the 46th Shuttle mission to land at Edwards, was the last construction mission for the International Space Station prior to the first scientists taking up residency in the orbiting space laboratory the following month. The seven-member crew on STS-92 included mission specialists Koichi Wakata, Michael Lopez-Alegria, Jeff Wisoff, Bill McArthur and Leroy Chiao, pilot Pam Melroy and mission commander Brian Duffy.
