By Irene Klotz
Cape Canaveral, Florida - The space shuttle Discovery was on track for an early Tuesday launch to deliver supplies, laboratory gear and mice for experiments aboard the International Space Station, officials said on Monday.
Liftoff was scheduled for 1.36am on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The mission, scheduled to last 13 days, will deliver final experiment racks to the orbital outpost, a $100-billion project of 16 nations, and supply the station with food and spare parts to keep it operating after the space shuttles are retired next year.
As the assembly of the space station winds down, the US space agency Nasa and its partners - Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada - are shifting focus to research programmes.
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Two refrigerator-sized racks for fluid physics and materials science experiments are among the seven tons of new gear slated to be installed during the shuttle's nine-day stay at the station.
Eight mice, including four that were genetically enhanced with a double portion of a bone-building gene, will be left on the station as part of a study to find out why astronauts' bones break down in the gravity-free world of space.
The affliction is similar to the bone-destroying disease osteoporosis, which affects millions of people on Earth, particularly post-menopausal women, and occurs because bone breakdown out-paces replenishment.
Scientists aren't sure what causes the imbalance.
Julie Robinson, Nasa's lead space station scientist, said there was a complex interaction between the hormones that regulate the way the cells operate.
"It's so complicated that to some extent in treating osteoporosis on the ground we're doing things that work and we're not sure exactly why they work," Robinson said.
"Imagine down the road if you could tailor a treatment rather than giving everyone the same drug and hoping it works," she added.
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