Shuttle Discovery heads to space station

Discovery's rendezvous with the space station on Monday will provide a good look at the shuttle's thermal skin, Gerstenmaier said. The astronauts cannot conduct a full inspection until near the end of the flight, much later than usual, because their inspection boom is at the space station. There wasn't room for it aboard Discovery, given Kibo's size, and so the last shuttle visitors left behind their boom.

Scott Kelly — the commander's identical twin brother and a space shuttle skipper — said it was more nerve-racking to watch his brother launch than to be strapped in himself. Their parents and 91-year-old grandmother are always anxious on launch day, he said.

"I know my grandmother; she would rather I work at Wal-Mart," Scott Kelly said, chuckling.

Everyone — observers and professionals alike — was relieved once Discovery safely reached orbit. Griffin noted that NASA has enjoyed "a number of good events" in recent days: The Phoenix Mars Lander survived its trip to the red planet last weekend and already has sent back pictures of what could well be ice.

"You make it look easy. I know it's not easy," Griffin told launch controllers.

Three spacewalks are planned during Discovery's 14-day flight, to install Kibo, replace an empty nitrogen-gas tank and try out various cleaning methods on a clogged solar-wing rotating joint. The shuttle crew is made up of six Americans and one Japanese.

The space station's two Russian residents, meanwhile, will put in the new toilet pump. For more than a week, the three occupants have had to manually flush the toilet with extra water several times a day, a time-consuming, water-wasting job.

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

One of Discovery's astronauts, Gregory Chamitoff, will move into the space station for a six-month stay. He'll replace Garrett Reisman, who will return to Earth aboard the shuttle.

Also hitching a ride to the space station is Buzz Lightyear. The 12-inch action figure — made famous in the 1995 Disney film "Toy Story" — is part of NASA's "toys in space" educational program for elementary students and their teachers.

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