US space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts blasted off today on a 13-day mission to the International Space Station in one of the final resupply flights before the United States retires the shuttle fleet later this year.
On its 131st shuttle mission, Discovery is carrying an Italian-built cargo pod named Leonardo stocked with 17 tons of equipment and supplies for the space station.
Three spacewalks are planned during the shuttle's nine-day stay at the station to install a new tank of ammonia coolant, replace one of the station steering system's gyroscopes and work on the Canadian-built Dextre robot.
The shuttle is also carrying the last of four US sleeping quarters for the station and a third freezer to hold experiment samples. Also onboard is an exercise assessment system to help astronauts monitor muscle strength in space; cameras, scanners and imagers for Earth monitoring studies; and a commercial water supply system that Nasa can tap if supplies run low.
The mission marks the first time two astronauts from JAXA, the Japanese space agency, will be in orbit at the same time. Naoko Yamazaki is a member of the shuttle Discovery crew, and Soichi Noguchi is part of the six-member resident space station crew.
Discovery is scheduled to close out the shuttle programme in September with a final cargo haul to the station.
Reuters