Cape Canaveral - The space shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Centre early this today, with seven astronauts on board, on an eight-day mission to repair the Hubble space telescope.
The mission - already postponed nine times, three times last week alone - is the first NASA space shuttle mission in 4 1/2 months. The crew members will make three space walks to repair the telescope and restore it to service, but because of the launch delays the mission has been shortened by two days and Discovery is due to return to Earth next Monday.
