The space shuttle Discovery that blasted off Monday morning from the Kennedy Space Center for the International Space Station has set a record by putting more women into the orbit than ever before.

Discovery carried seven-person crew including three women astronauts. Naoko Yamazaki, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and Stephanie Wilson will join Tracy Caldwell Dyson who is already at the ISS. This will be the first time when four women will remain in space at the same time.

After reaching orbit, the crew discovered a snag in the Ku-band antenna, which failed when the crew tried to activate it. However, NASA officials said that there were other tools to work around the situation.

NASA has plans to retire its fleet by the end of September; however the ISS will continue operating until 2020 under the Obama administration plans.

The ISS, which is a sophisticated platform for performing scientific experiments in space, is orbiting around 350 kilometers above the earth.