NASA launched a spacecraft after delaying

Space shuttle Discovery of the US Space Agency (NASA) yesterday left the launch pad in the state of Florida, performing a 14-day mission to complete the upgrade of the International Space Station (ISS).

Discovery ships leave the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.Photo: Reuters.

Discovery's 7-person crew will install the fourth and final solar battery for ISS, in order to provide more electricity for the expansion of the space station. In the crew there is Koichi Wakata, who will become the first Japanese citizen to work permanently on ISS.

The launch of Discovery was postponed last month due to technical problems related to fuel valves. The number of ships shipped to ISS will help expand the station from the scale of serving three current astronauts to 6 in May. The expansion of power supply capacity also meets the demand of fully exploiting scientific laboratories connected with ISS. All solar panels on the station can produce 120 kilowatts of living electricity.

Discovery crew will make 4 space walks to install solar panel, while replacing the problematic part of the system to purify urine into drinking water on the ISS station. Another important task is to perform a "shift" to work on the station with the first attendance of astronauts from the Japanese space agency (JAXA).

This is the US shuttle 125th flight so far, the 28th trip to ISS and Discovery 36th voyage. In the near future, there will be 8 more flights to complete the construction of the ISS station and store necessities, before the US shuttle fleet retires from 2010.

International Space Station (International Space Station - ISS) is a space research complex in the final stage, in cooperation with the world's 5 largest space agencies, NASA (USA), RKA (Russia ), JAXA (Japan, CSA (Canada) and ESA (Europe). Under the plan, ISS will be completed in 2011 and operate until 2016.