Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven blasted off Saturday and reached orbit en route to the International Space Station to deliver the second large piece of a Japanese research laboratory and fix a malfunctioning lavatory. The shuttle’s trip to the space station will take two days. Once they will reach there, Discovery’s crew will unload and install the $1billion lab. Five of the astronauts on board Discovery were going into space for the first time.

Astronaut Doug Wheelock revealed that the seven astronauts will be experiencing three times gravity during the launch before becoming weightless. As the spacecraft left Earth's atmosphere it was traveling 28,000 km per hour towards its destination. The shuttle launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida under sunny skies. The Japanese lab is 37 feet long and more than 32,000 pounds, 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. The entire lab, with all its pieces, cost more than $2 billion. Docking of Discovery is expected to take place on Monday, June 2, 2008.