International Space Station update: Both Kibo and toilet operational

International Space Station update: Both Kibo and toiletoperational news 06 June 2008
The main payload of the current space shuttle mission has nowbecome operational, and we are not referring to the malfunctioningtoilet aboard the International Space Station (ISS) here, althoughthe station crew which suffered before relief came aboard theDiscovery in the shape of a replacement vacuum pump may beg todiffer. No, the payload referred to here is the $1-billioncomponent for the Japanese Kibo space laboratory. (Kibo means hopein Japanese). (See: Action-packed Day 2 for discovery astronauts )
The toilet, being a smaller but no less crucial piece of equipment,was repaired earlier on Wednesday by Russian cosmonaut OlegKononenko. Later, as day broke over the skies of Japan on Thursday,the nation's Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tsukuba Space Centrelife support systems and other equipment in the laboratory in theKibo research module.
With this act, Japan established its first system to operate amanned Japanese space facility from inside the country, half acentury after Tokyo University Prof. Hideo Itokawa test-launched apencil-shaped rocket. Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide whotransported aboard the ISS in Discovery and is guiding proceedingsthere, said, ''It's still empty, but this module is full ofdreams.''
Hoshide set up a blue noren curtain that read "Kibo" in Japanese atthe lab entrance. Wearing a mask and goggles to avoid dust, heopened the hatch and entered the laboratory at 6:09 a.m. ThursdayJapan time. After Hoshide checked the lab interior, nine otherastronauts entered and spent time floating inside the nearly emptyfacility.
About 20 officials at the Japanese mission control at the TsukubaSpace Centre stood and clapped when Hoshide entered the Kibo lab.They applauded again when a TV monitor showed the astronautsplayfully floating round the laboratory and Hoshide displaying awritten message to recruit astronauts.
Later on, spacewalking astronauts worked on the outside Kibo,installing cameras and removing covers. As the spacewalkers,Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan Jr, toiled outside, their eightcolleagues hauled more experiment racks into the lab and flightcontrollers near Tokyo monitored the power systems.
Even with all the racks moving in, Kibo was still noticeably biggerthan the eight other rooms at the space station. "We have not seenthat much space in space since Skylab," Mission Control told theastronauts in a written message. Skylab was NASA's first spacestation, back in the 1970s.
Space shuttle Discovery's astronauts delivered and installed Kiboearlier in the week. There are now three labs at the orbitingcomplex, supplied by NASA, the European Space Agency and, now, theJapanese Space Agency.
On Friday, the astronauts will attach a storage shed to Kibo thatwas dropped off by another shuttle crew in March. And on Saturday,they will test drive Kibo's 33-foot robot arm. The two TV camerasthat were set up on the lab's exterior Thursday will beinstrumental in those robot-arm operations.
One last spacewalk is planned for Sunday, to replace an emptynitrogen-gas tank at the space station.