Saturday night NASA launched the space shuttle Discovery into orbit, for a 14 day mission on the International Space Station. The shuttle is transporting into orbit one of the key sections of the Japanese Kibo laboratory and a set of installations for the toilet facilities onboard the Space Station.

The crew is made up of 7 members: six men and one woman, which will have 3 missions in space. They bill was to attach a new module to the Kibo laboratory, and after this, the room will have the biggest surface on the Space Station, enabling four researchers to work there at the same time.

Another section of the Japanese project has already been installed in the previous mission of the Discovery shuttle. We’re talking about a gigantic robotic arm, capable of manipulating materials and equipments for scientific experiments.

The third and final section of the Kibo laboratory will be brought into orbit in March 2009.