Shuttle en route to space station
Lugging an enormous new lab, shuttle Discovery was in fast pursuit of the international space station yesterday following a spectacular launch that one astronaut called "the greatest show on Earth".
Discovery and its crew of seven thundered into orbit late Saturday afternoon, carrying up Japan's $1 billion lab as well as a spare pump for the space station's malfunctioning toilet.
The shuttle will reach its destination today.
"Obviously a huge day," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said, for all of the space station partners "and really for all the people who hope to see the space station come to fruition and do what it was designed to do".
The school-bus-size lab, named Kibo, Japanese for hope, will be the biggest room by far at the space station and bring the orbiting outpost to three-quarters of completion.
It is 11.3 m long and more than 14,500 kg, and fills Discovery's entire payload bay. The first part of the lab flew up in March, and the third and final section will be launched next year.
Nearly 400 Japanese journalists, space program officials and other guests jammed NASA's launch site, their excitement growing as the hours, then minutes, counted down.
Just before liftoff, commander Mark Kelly noted that Kibo was the "hope for the space station", then radioed: "Now stand by for the greatest show on Earth!"
"It's great to be in space," he later said.
His new wife, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, cheered and held on to her mother and mother-in-law as Discovery rose into a brilliantly blue sky dotted with a few clouds. A few dozen political friends attended the launch at the couple's invitation.
"It was just fantastic. It was really amazing," Giffords said.
Agencies
(China Daily 06/02/2008 page6)
