News : Shuttle blasts off for space station

The U.S. space shuttle Discovery blasted off on Sunday carrying a pair of solar wing panels and the first Japanese resident astronaut for the International Space Station.

Discovery will spend 13 days in orbit, speeding around the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour (28,160 kph). For eight of those days it will be lodged at the space station, which is nearing completion after more than a decade of construction 225 miles (360 km) above Earth.Discovery's seven-man crew includes Koichi Wakata, 45, who will be left behind on the space station as Japan's first resident crew member. NASA last year delivered and installed the main components of Japan's Kibo laboratory at the orbital complex.

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