Astronauts prepare to install Japan's space lab

Astronauts geared up Tuesday for a spacewalk to unlock a Japanese laboratory from the US shuttle Discovery, paving the way for its installation on the International Space Station.

MissionspecialistsMikeFossumandRonGaran will venture out of the orbiting station to detach the lab from Discovery's payload bay, which will give Japan a permanent outpost to carry out experiments in space.

"Obviously it's going to be a really big day for Japan, they've been working very hard on this module and all of the systems in it," said ISS flight director Emily Nelson.

"It's a big day for us as well, bringing the largest laboratory that we'll have on the space station on orbit and getting it up and running."

Fossum and Garan spent the night in the station's depressurization chamber ahead of the spacewalk, which will coincide with the 43rd anniversary of America's first spacewalk.

Once they step into the void, the spacewalkers will remove contamination covers from the lab's docking surfaces, disconnect heater cables and remove locking bolts from shutters of its forward window.

JapanAerospaceExplorationAgencyastronautAkihikoHoshide and American colleague Karen Nyberg will then operate the station's robotic arm to attach the lab to the ISS.

Discovery arrived at the station Monday with seven astronauts on board, joining the ISS's three-man crew for a nine-day stay in an orbit about 338 kilometers (210 miles) above Earth.

The Japanese Pressurized Module (JPM) is the central segment of three parts that will make up Japan's Kibo ("hope") laboratory.

The 11.2-meter (36.7-foot) long, 14.8-tonne (32,600-pound) module will be the single largest room on the ISS, with space for four scientists.

Kibo's 10-meter (33-foot) robotic arm, which will manipulate materials and equipment for science experiments, will also be installed during the Discovery mission.

A mission in March carried up Kibo's logistics module and the JPM's internal racks. The shuttle will deliver a sort of terrace to expose experiments to the space environment next year.

Discovery's mission has also brought badly needed parts to fix a 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.

Vladimir Solovyov, chief ground control official for the Russian section of the ISS, said the toilet troubles could force the station's two cosmonauts to come home early.

"It's true, we have a problem with the flushing system. This is a serious matter," he told Interfax news agency. Repairs are scheduled on Thursday and Friday, Solovyov said.

As the astronauts worked in space, NASA engineers poured over images of Discovery taken by the ISS crew as it approached the station -- a security measure that has become a regular feature of shuttle missions.

The space agency is looking for any damage that Discovery's heat shield might have suffered during liftoff in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday.

NASA was also investigating unprecedented damage on the shuttle's launch pad following Saturday's liftoff, which left a big gap in a brick wall of the flame trench.

The space agency said Discovery was not struck by brick and mortar that blew off the launch pad.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has meticulously scanned the shuttles' heat shields since the Columbia disaster in 2003, when a crack in its protective tiles led to its explosion, killing all seven astronauts.

© 2008 AFP

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