Shuttle Discovery to Dock at Space Station Today

HOUSTON - The space shuttle Discovery is set to finally deliver the giant Japanese Kibo lab to its intended home today on the International Space Station (ISS).

Discovery is slated to dock with the ISS at 1:54 p.m. EDT (1754 GMT) this afternoon carrying the new tour bus-sized module, a $1 billion laboratory more than 20 years in the making.

?The Kibo module is beautiful, it?s just a beautiful piece of engineering,? Discovery mission specialist Mike Fossum said during an interview Sunday from space. ?The Japanese people are very proud of that and they have a right to be.?

Commanded by veteran astronaut Mark Kelly, Discovery launched Saturday from NASA?s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a two-week construction mission to the space station.

?It?s everything [I expected] and more,? mission specialist Karen Nyberg, a first-time spaceflyer, said during a televised interview. ?It?s been a blast? Nothing in my experience compares.?

Before catching up with the orbiting laboratory, Kelly will pilot the shuttle through a 360-degree backflip about 600 feet (183 meters) below the orbital station.

The move, called a rendezvous pitch maneuver, will allow astronauts aboard the station to take high resolution pictures of the shuttle?s heat-resistant underbelly to search for signs of damage. The images, along with data from a preliminary inspection using Discovery?s robotic arm and a later scan using a laser-tipped boom, will allow engineers to determine if the shuttle?s heat shield is in good health.

After Discovery docks with the space station, the astronauts plan to open the hatches between the orbiter and the station to begin about 10 days of joint operations.

?Oh, docking day?s a big day,? mission specialist Mike Fossum said in a preflight interview. ?Once we get docked, it takes about an hour to get the hatches open. We?ll barrel across and start messing up the nice neat space station.?

In addition to dropping off Kibo, the space shuttle will deliver the newest crewmember of the orbital laboratory, Greg Chamitoff. Chamitoff will relieve U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman as a flight engineer onboard, while Reisman is scheduled to journey home to Earth with Discovery on June 14.

The two crewmembers will officially swap places when they exchange custom-fitted seat liners on the Soyuz spacecraft currently docked at the space station. When this switch - slated for 4:57 p.m. EDT (2057 GMT) - occurs, Chamitoff will officially become a member of the ISS Expedition 17 crew.

?Expedition 17 is actually a big transition point for the space station program because we?re going to have all the international partners involved at this point,? Chamitoff, a first-time spaceflyer, said before launch. ?The Japanese module will be on board as well as the Columbus, European module.?

Discovery will also be bringing a third, eagerly-awaited addition to the space station: a new pump for its broken toilet. The orbital commode has been acting up recently, working for solid waste but not for liquid, and often forcing two-astronaut teams to manually pump it for 10 minutes in order to flush. Mission planners hope the replacement pump will restore the loo to working order.

At the end of the day, Discovery mission specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan will begin their campout in the space station?s lower-pressure airlock in preparation for the mission?s first spacewalk on Tuesday.

NASA is broadcasting the planned launch of Discovery's STS-124 mission live on NASA TV on Saturday. Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission updates and NASA TV feed.

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