美国“发现号”航天飞机星期一从佛罗里达州的肯尼迪航天中心飞向太空，把六名美国宇航员和一名日本宇航员送往国际空间站。美国航空航天局表示，“发现号” 星期一早晨按预定时间升空。这次“发现号”飞行是航天飞机机群仅剩几次飞行中的一次。美国航天局说，航天飞机机群将在今年年底前退役。此次飞行后，航天飞机机群只剩下三次飞行任务。
“发现号”预计将于星期三抵达国际空间站。“发现号”将把备件和一些实验仪器送到环绕太空的国际空间站。“发现号”抵达国际空间站以后，将是第一次有四名女宇航员将集结在那里，其中三位是这次“发现号”的机组成员，另外一位则已经在空间站。
The U.S. space shuttle Discovery has taken off from the Kennedy Space Center in (the southeastern U.S. state of) Florida, carrying six Americans and one Japanese astronaut to the International Space Station. NASA says the launch early Monday (at 6:21 EST, 10:21 GMT) went as expected. This flight is one of the last scheduled for the space shuttle fleet. The U.S. space agency NASA says it will retire the fleet before the end of this year. Only three flights remain after this one.
Discovery is expected to arrive at the space station Wednesday. It will deliver spare parts and science experiments to the orbiting laboratory. This mission will be the first time four women have been at the International Space Station at the same time — three are part of the shuttle crew, and the other is already at the space station.