This mission has the main objective of completing the electricity system of the International Space Station by delivering and installing two more solar panels. Discovery will also fly Japan’s first live-aboard crew member to the ISS. The enhanced electric capacity of the ISS will expand the number of crew members it can host aboard from three to six. The two solar panels will also provide the ISS with the electric energy needed to run to labs attached to the space station. 

 

The labs that run attached to the ISS are analyzing the effects that space has on humans and grow protein crystals that are used in medical research. 

 

The launch was scheduled for Wednesday at 9:20 p.m. EDT, but the problem with the fuel leak left the space agency with no other alternative but to delay the launch and fix the problem. Although NASA said the launch would be carried out on Sunday, this depends entirely on the time the NASA engineers need to fix the malfunction. 

 

"[The] exact launch date is dependent on the work necessary to repair the problem," said the space agency in a statement adding that the first progress assessment will be made on Thursday. 

 

When it finally launches, the mission will take 14 days during which the crew aboard the space shuttle Discovery will install the aforementioned solar wing panels, deliver the Japanese astronaut and also a new distiller for the urine recycling system of the ISS, because the processor sent in November by the space agency malfunctioned repeatedly. 

 

The Japanese new ISS member will be Dr Koichi Wataka, an experienced astronaut who took part at two previous shuttle missions. He will stay aboard the ISS until June. It is an “historic week” for the Japanese space agency's (Jaxa) as Kuniaki Shiraki, executive director of Jaxa's human space program, put it. 

 

"We have been waiting a long time," said Mr. Shiraki, Reuters reported. 

 

Meanwhile, one of the current ISS crew members is preparing to return home. Astronaut Sandra Magnus will return to Earth with the Discovery space shuttle. 

 

The launch of the space shuttle has been delayed several times. This is the fifth time this happens. Last time, NASA decided to delay the launch in order to perform some tests involving the malfunction of one of the valves that control the pressure and flow of the liquid hydrogen. 

 

Eight more flights are needed to complete the ISS, a project on which 15 countries are collaborating.