The final stage of the ground-up rendezvous kicked off about 12:16 p.m. EDT (1616 GMT) as Horowitz ignited the shuttle's left-hand orbital maneuvering engine, a 15-second firing that brought the ship to a point 600 feet (182 meters) directly below the outpost.
Discovery then arced out in front of the station before Horowitz eased the ship up to a port at the end of the Destiny lab.
That precision piloting task called for the shuttle skipper to bring the shuttle and station docking rings within just three inches (7.6 centimeters) of each other so the ships wouldn't bounce off upon contact.
The minor glitch with the docking mechanism's shock absorber was the only hitch in what otherwise was a flawless rendezvous punctuated by some stunning imagery beamed back to Earth by both the shuttle and station crews.
The views from cameras on the station's $600 million Canadian robot arm showed the black-and-white shuttle flying high over cloud-covered blue oceans, its open payload bay facing the frontier outpost.
An Italian-made moving van was nestled in the shuttle's cargo bay, and the ship's nose-and-tail thrusters could be seen pulsing as Discovery closed in on the station from below.
Shuttle cameras, meanwhile, showed the 17-story station against black space. In clear view were the station's four linked pressurized modules: The Destiny lab, the U.S. Unity module, the Russian space tug Zarya and the Russian Zvezda crew quarters.
Perpendicular to the station's core were shiny gold U.S. solar arrays and smaller Russian solar wings -- appendages that make the outpost look like a giant dragonfly in space.
Weighing in at 132 tons, the international complex appeared much larger than it did when three of the shuttle astronauts last visited an embryonic outpost that consisted of just the Russian space tug and the Unity module.
The station since then has grown 10 stories taller and is 100 tons heavier.
"Bet your view is a lot different than the last time you were there," MacLean said.
"That's quite a different station than what we were looking at last time," Horowitz replied.
Coming up Monday: A changing of the guard at the station.
The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts now on the outpost will outfit the station's Russian Soyuz lifeboat with seat-liners that were custom-made for Culbertson and his crewmates.
Partial pressure spacesuits that the Expedition Three crew would don if they had to abandon ship also will be checked out before the trio officially begins a planned fourth-month tour of duty.
Also on tap: The start of a weeklong effort to move the new crew in -- and the old crew out -- of the international station, a job that will require mounting a shuttle-borne shipping container on the side of the outpost.
Wielding the shuttle's 50-foot (15-meter) robot arm, Discovery mission specialist Patrick Forrester will lift an Italian-built cargo carrier -- dubbed Leonardo -- from the shuttle's cargo bay about 9:20 a.m. EDT (1320 GMT) Monday before attaching it to a berthing port on the Unity module.
The joined shuttle and station crews then will start unloading more than three tons of food, clothing, supplies, research gear and science experiments for the Expedition Three crew.
Later this week, outgoing commander Usachev and his crew then will pack about a ton of luggage, surplus station gear and garbage into the shipping container before it is stowed back in the shuttle for a return trip to Earth.
Two five-hour spacewalks also will be performed during Discovery's eight-day station stay.
Forrester and fellow mission specialist Daniel Barry will mount a pallet of ammonia coolant tanks outside the station during the first excursion, which will be staged next Thursday.
The second sortie -- which will take place Saturday -- primarily will involve stringing cables outside the Destiny lab.
With Usachev, Helms and Voss on board, Discovery is scheduled to depart the station next Sunday, heading toward a 12:48 p.m. EDT (1648 GMT) Aug. 22 landing at the shuttle's coastal Florida homeport.
Culbertson and his crew, meanwhile, are scheduled to remain in space until Dec. 9.
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