WASHINGTON (AFP) — Astronauts on the US space shuttle Discovery will dock with the International Space Station Monday, delivering a payload that included the key unit of Japan's Kibo space lab and parts for a bogged-up space lavatory.
The six American and one Japanese astronauts aboard were scheduled to wake up at around 6:30 am (1030 GMT) for a busy day of maneuvering the shuttle to its rendezvous with the ISS 338 kilometers (210 miles) above Earth.
Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the mission was going on extraordinarily smoothly, with a very low level of technical glitches and other things to worry about.
"All in all, the mission's going very well," LeRoy Cain, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, said in a briefing Sunday.
Ahead of docking, at 1655 GMT, Discovery will perform its now-famous in-space "back flip" to allow astronauts aboard the ISS to film and photograph its underside.
The images will be sent to engineers on Earth who will inspect them for signs of damage to the shuttle's thermal skin.
After that, the docking is set for 1754 GMT Monday, and the Discovery team will be welcomed into the space station about two hours later.
NASA continued to downplay the possible danger of damage done by several pieces of foam shed by the shuttle's external fuel tank during launch, even as it waited to examine images from Sunday's and Monday's shuttle inspections.
Cameras spotted several pieces of foam coming off Discovery's tank late during Saturday's ascent, raising concerns of damage to the shuttle's insulating ceramic tiles of the type that led to the 2003 Columbia disaster, in which all seven astronauts aboard were killed.
The Discovery team -- six Americans plus Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide -- will deliver and help install the second of three parts of a huge Japanese laboratory called Kibo, the Japanese word meaning "hope."
Once in place, the 11.2-meter (36.7-foot) long, 14.8-tonne (32,600-pound) pressure module will be the single largest room on the ISS, with space for four scientists.
Kibo's 10-meter (33-foot) robotic arm, to be used for manipulating materials and equipment for science experiments, will also be pulled from the shuttle and attached to the Kibo unit.
"The Kibo module is ... just a beautiful piece of engineering," astronaut Michael Fossum, who will lead the spacewalks to install the Kibo lab, said Sunday.
Also onboard the shuttle was a payload of critical importance for the three ISS astronauts: parts to fix their high-tech Russian-built space toilet.
The ISS commode malfunctioned last week, forcing the three ISS astronauts to rig up a still-troublesome bypass for liquid waste.'
Discovery is taking along a spare pump from Russia, which the two cosmonauts on the station are expected to install as soon as the shuttle arrives.
Until the repair is complete, the three-member station crew will use the shuttle's toilet -- or they will use extra emergency bags that Discovery is also bringing.
Asked who would do the plumbing repair, Fossum said: "The fact is that the toilet is Russian hardware ... (but) if they need a hand and some wrenches we'll help out."
The astronauts spent Sunday checking out spacesuits they will use during the mission's three scheduled spacewalks at the station and participated in media interviews with radio and television stations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Bryan, Texas.
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