Astronauts prepare to open new space station room

Their first wave of construction work successfully completed, the 10 astronauts aboard the shuttle Discovery and the international space station eagerly awaited their entrance today into the latest addition to the orbiting complex.

Astronauts added the school bus-sized room – called Harmony – during a 6.5-hour spacewalk yesterday, using a robotic arm to lift it from the shuttle’s cargo bay and install it on the station.

After astronauts Daniel Tani and Clayton Anderson remove some covers from Harmony’s hatch area, station commander Peggy Whitson is scheduled to conduct the grand opening and start outfitting the room.

As the crew got ready for a busy day, Anderson played a recording of Elton John’s Harmony, dedicating it the station’s “newest guest”.

“That was a little Elton John welcoming her to the fold,” said Anderson, who has been living on the space station since June and will return to Earth aboard Discovery.

Today’s schedule got a little less crowded after Nasa decided not to order any more inspections for launch damage, saying the shuttle’s thermal shielding appeared to be in good shape.

Examining the shield that protects the shuttle from the searing heat of re-entry has been a top priority for Nasa since Columbia’s loss in 2003.

Columbia disintegrated after a piece of foam broke off its external fuel tank during lift-off and gashed a wing, allowing hot gases to penetrate the ship during its descent. All seven of its astronauts were killed.

Nasa examined images of Discovery gathered during launch, a second-day wing and nose scan and a pre-docking backflip manoeuvre before determining there was no significant damage. Another inspection two days before landing will check for any impacts from orbital debris.

Tani and astronaut Scott Parazynski also were scheduled to spend time today preparing for the next day’s spacewalk, the second of a record-tying five outings planned for the mission.

They plan to install spacewalking handrails and other equipment to the outside of Harmony. The spacewalkers also will take a look at a rotary joint for the space station’s solar wings that has exhibited electrical current spikes in recent months. The joint is necessary for turning the solar wings toward the sun.

More computer repairs are also on the crew’s to-do list. Both Discovery and the space station have had some networking problems over the past few days.