Shuttle docks on space station with Japan lab

WASHINGTON - The US shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station on Monday, delivering a bus-sized Japanese laboratory to expand research and badly-needed parts for a troublesome toilet.
The shuttle, carrying one Japanese and six American astronauts, linked up with the orbiting ISS after a delicate approach 338 kilometers (210 miles) above the south Pacific, NASA television images showed.
'Discovery drops anchor at the International Space Station,' a NASA television commentator said.
The spacecraft were to open up their hatches about two hours later, at 1952 GMT, allowing the shuttle astronauts to float into their new home for the next nine days.
About an hour before docking, Commander Mark Kelly steered Discovery into a rollercoaster-like maneuver, flipping the shuttle just 600 feet (180 meters) below the station to allow ISS astronauts to photograph its underside.
The 360-degree maneuver has become a regular safety feature during flights allowing the space agency to ensure that the shuttle is free of potentially devastating damage.
The images taken by the station crew members were downloaded to engineers on Earth who were inspecting them for signs of damage to the shuttle's thermal protective skin.
On-the-ground cameras spotted several pieces of foam coming off Discovery's external fuel tank during Saturday's launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, but NASA has downplayed the risk posed by the debris.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has meticulously scanned the shuttle's heat shield since the Columbia disaster in 2003, when a crack in its protective tiles led to its explosion, killing its seven astronauts.
The Discovery team, which includes Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, will deliver and help install the second of three parts Japan's Kibo, or 'hope,' laboratory.
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.
Two astronauts will step out of the station on Tuesday for a spacewalk to prepare the module for its removal from the shuttle's payload bay the same day. Three spacewalks are planned during the mission.
The shuttle also brought 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.'