NASA's second female commander and her six crewmates flew into the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday for training and a rehearsal for a planned October 23 liftoff.

Cmdr. Pam Melroy becomes only the second woman to lead a shuttle mission, following in the footsteps of retired astronaut Eileen Collins. Melroy will oversee shuttle Discovery's planned 14-day flight to deliver and install a new module to the International Space Station.

Discovery's visit coincides with command of the space station being turned over to a woman for the first time in the program's history. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is scheduled for launch on Wednesday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket along with her cosmonaut crewmate, Yuri Malenchenko, and Malaysia's first astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.

Malaysia got the coveted third seat on the Soyuz and a weeklong stay in space as part of a deal to buy fighter jets from Russia.

"It's a pretty big week for human spaceflight, and we're excited to be part of it," Melroy said after she and her crew made a sunset landing at the Florida spaceport.

The astronauts plan to deliver the last piece of the station before partner laboratories built by Europe and Japan are attached to the complex later this year and in 2008. The module is a connecting hub named Harmony.

Discovery's crew includes pilot George Zamka, Scott Parazynski, Stephanie Wilson, Douglas Wheelock, Paolo Nespoli with the European Space Agency and Dan Tani, who will replace astronaut Clay Anderson as the third live-aboard station crewmember.

The astronauts will dress in their pressurized flight suits and climb aboard the shuttle on Wednesday for the final few hours of a launch dress rehearsal.