Shuttle Docks With Space Station

HOUSTON, June 2, 2008 — -- Carrying seven astronauts, a 35,000-pound Japanese laboratory, 33 pounds of repair parts for a broken toilet and a 12-inch Buzz Lightyear action figure, the shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station today.

The shuttle crew is on a two-week mission to the space station to install the billion-dollar Japanese Kibo module in a series of three spacewalks -- and, yes, to bring parts to fix the toilet on the space station.

Mission managers at NASA said the docking went flawlessly. But they separately revealed that, during the launch on Saturday, Discovery had done a surprising amount of damage to its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Bricks and pieces of concrete were blown hundreds of feet in every direction as the shuttle lifted off. A 75-foot section of the wall of the so-called flame trench, directly beneath the shuttle's booster engines, was stripped of its outer layer of concrete.

NASA managers said they do not know why this particular launch was so destructive. Shuttles take off with tremendous force, and after the very first launch in 1981, a system was added to the two launch pads to minimize damage by pouring thousands of gallons of water on the pad as the shuttle left.

But Saturday's launch, designated STS-124, did even more damage than the launch of STS-1.

"We will go figure out what caused this damage and we will fix it," said Leroy Cain, head of the mission management team.

"I have no reason to believe we will delay the [next] mission in October," he said. "We have plenty of time to research this."

Meanwhile, 200 miles up in orbit, the shuttle's seven-member crew was settling in for a stay with their three colleagues on the space station.

As Discovery slowly approached, the space station crew members greeted their colleagues on the shuttle by playing a golden oldie, CW McCall's "Convoy."

Cmdr. Mark Kelly put Discovery through its paces, executing a back-flip 600 feet below the space station just before docking. The nine-minute maneuver gave the crew on the space station 90 seconds to shoot as many as 300 digital photos of the shuttle's belly for evidence of any launch damage.

Analysts on the ground are waiting to see those photos after they are down-linked to Mission Control to see if Discovery is intact.

Separately from the damage to the launch pad, NASA manager Cain says analysis shows five pieces of foam came off the shuttle's orange external fuel tank during launch. Two pieces hit the shuttle, but initial images and data from Discovery indicate nothing serious.

But Cain admits that NASA doesn't have the whole picture yet.

"So, those areas of foam that we saw coming off, those five or so pieces, at least some of them are coming from an area that we can't see yet," Cain said. "So, [they are] possibly from areas that we're just not able to see because of the rotation of the tank and the lighting."

The three crew members on the space station are waiting most anxiously for the plumbing parts that were rushed to the Kennedy Space Center last week and loaded onto the shuttle. Discovery is carrying up a new pump for the space station's broken toilet.

There is only one bathroom on the space station, in the Russian segment, and it has gone through three pumps in the past one-and-a-half weeks. Everyone hopes this brand new pump, which is from a different manufacturing batch, will finally fix the problem.

Space Station Becomes Home Sweet Home

After Discovery docked, newly arrived astronaut Greg Chamitoff complimented his space station colleague Garrett Reisman on his digs.

"You have a beautiful house," he said.

Chamitoff will stay on the space station for the next six months as a member of the Expedition 17 crew. This is the first trip into space for the father of 3-year-old twins. He knows six months is a long time in a 3-year-old's life.

"During the training, I have been away a month at a time, and every time I come back, it is, 'Where is the kid that I left?'" he said.

He hung a space station model from the ceiling at home and says that it helps his children understand where he is.