美国“发现号”航天飞机于美国当地时间15日晚19点43分(北京时间16日7时43分)，在肯尼迪航天中心发射升空。

　　据悉，“发现号”上载有7名宇航员，包括6名美国人和1名日本人。此次发射的任务是为国际空间站装配太阳能电池板。

　　The U.S. space shuttle Discovery lifted off on Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a mission of delivering the International Space Station (ISS)'s fourth and final set of solar array wings, completing the station's truss, or backbone.

　　It is NASA's first space shuttle flight in 2009.

　　The space shuttle set off at 19:43 p.m. EDT (2343 GMT), thundering into a clear sky. Thousands of people came to Kennedy Space Center to see the blastoff.

　　The NASA TV shows that the five engines boosting Discovery and its external tank towards orbit have shut down as planned about eight and a half minutes into flight. Shortly after that, the shuttle entered its orbit. It is expected to dock with the ISS on March 17.