STS-128 was the final Space Shuttle flight used for ISS crew rotation, with Nicole Stott replacing Tim Kopra. Stott returned on STS-129, but that flight did not bring her replacement.

The mission of Christer Fuglesang was named Alissé by the European Space Agency. The name was proposed by Jürgen Modlich from Baierbrunn, Germany. The name refers to the 15th-century explorers who used the trade winds to follow Christopher Columbus across the oceans to the New World.

STS-128 also marked the first time two Hispanic Americans were on the same crew. John 'Danny' Olivas of El PasoTexas, made his second trip into space, and Jose Hemandez of Stockton California, made his first. Both are of Mexican heritage.

STS-128 (ISS assembly flight 17A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Centre (ISS) that launched on 28 August 2009. Space Shuttle Discovery carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo as its primary payload. Leonardo contained a collection of experiments for studying the physics and chemistry of microgravity. Three spacewalks were carried out during the mission, which removed and replaced a materials processing experiment outside ESA's Columbus module, and returned an empty ammonia tank assembly.

The mission's first launch attempt was delayed due to weather concerns, including multiple weather violations in NASA's launch rules, beginning over two hours before the scheduled launch.. The second launch attempt, scheduled for 26 August 2009 at 01:10:22 EDT, was called off the previous evening due to an anomaly in one of the orbiter's fuel valves. The launch finally took place on 28 August 2009 at 23:59 EDT. Discovery landed on 11 September 2009 at Edwards Air Force Base, which was the last landing of a shuttle to occur at the California site.