Discovery headed to space station with 2 gifts

CAPE CANAVERAL - Shuttle Discovery left Earth Saturday evening carrying two very different gifts to the International Space Station: a $1-billion research laboratory and a part for a broken toilet.

The shuttle began its 14-day mission on time and in what mission control called a "perfect ascent" on a sunny evening, just after 5 p.m.

Discovery's crew will attach Japan's giant science laboratory to the space station, which it is expected to reach Monday. The laboratory is the centerpiece of a Japanese research complex called Kibo, which will give the country its first manned facility where astronauts can conduct experiments for a long period of time.

The 37-foot, 32,000-pound Kibo workshop – about the length of a tour bus – will be the largest room at the space station.

Kibo, which means “hope,” is a historic step forward for Japan, which is gaining a foothold at the International Space Station alongside the United States, Russia and Europe.

Also on the Discovery's crew's to-do list is cleaning a troubled gear that is part of the station's power supply.

And there is the matter of the broken toilet on the space station.For more than a week, the three astonauts aboard the station have had to manually flush the toilet with extra water several times a day, a time-consuming job.

NASA and Russian space officials are hoping that a pump — which was rushed to Kennedy Space Center from Moscow this week — gets the toilet back in normal working order.

A mission scheduled for next year will install Kibo’s third and final piece, an exterior platform where outside experiments can take place.

--Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer