Discovery docks at ISS
2008-06-02 22:50
Cape Canaveral - Space shuttle Discovery performed a slow back flip and then docked at the International Space Station on Monday, delivering a mammoth lab and a Nasa astronaut who will be its newest resident.
Commander Mark Kelly pulled up to the space station and parked as the two spacecraft soared 340km above the South Pacific.
Discovery carried Japan's prized Kibo lab, an 11-metre-long, 16-ton scientific workshop. The seven shuttle astronauts and three station residents will combine forces to install the bus-size lab on Tuesday.
The shuttle crew also brought a spare toilet pump for the orbiting outpost. The space station's Russian-built toilet broke nearly two weeks ago - forcing the crew to perform manual flushes with extra water several times a day - and engineers hope the new pump will take care of the problem.
Astronaut Gregory Chamitoff got his first look at what will be his home for the next six months. He will replace Garrett Reisman, who has been living at the station since March.
'Keep on truckin'
As Discovery closed in, Reisman played a recording of CW McCall's Convoy, the 1975 novelty song about truckers.
"Keep on truckin' Discovery," Reisman called out.
"We are really looking forward to seeing you guys," said Kelly.
Also moving in for a half-year is a 30cm action figure familiar to children almost everywhere: Buzz Lightyear, the character from the film Toy Story that's always yearning to blast off "to infinity and beyond".
Disney sent up the toy as part of NASA's toys-in-space educational programme.
Right before linking up with the space station, Kelly guided Discovery through a 360-degree somersault, allowing Reisman and one of the space station's Russian residents to take zoom-in photos of the shuttle's belly.
The back flip became standard procedure for shuttle flights following the 2003 Columbia tragedy; which was brought down by a hole in the wing, left there by flyaway fuel-tank foam.
Imagery experts will pore over these digital pictures - as well as the multitude of images from Saturday's launch - to see whether Discovery is in good enough shape to re-enter safely on June 14.
Damaged launch pad
About five pieces of foam insulation broke off the external fuel tank during liftoff, and one or two of them may have hit the shuttle. But the pieces, it's believed, came off too late in the launch to do any damage.
NASA, meanwhile, has formed an investigation team to figure out why the launch pad sustained so much damage during Discovery's liftoff - far worse than usual.
A large section of the flame trench - 30 metres by 6 metres - broke apart, and chunks of the large heat-resistant fire bricks were scattered all the way out to the fence 550 metres away, possibly even farther. "We're combing the ground as we speak," Nasa spokesperson Bill Johnson said in early afternoon.
Nasa does not need to use the pad again until the next shuttle launch in October.
- AP