Discovery will be launched tonight to the space station

NASA reports that so far the preparations for the launch are continuing without a hitch, and even the weather is expected to cooperate * Last night, spare parts for the stalled services of the space station, which arrived at the last minute from Russia, were uploaded to the shuttle

The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to take off to the space station on mission STS-124, on Saturday at 17:02 EST (midnight between Saturday and Sunday Israel time). According to what is known so far, the Discovery launch should be smooth, as you get closer to the day itself.

"The shuttle and its crew members, the weather and the launch crew members are all ready for the launch," said Leroy Kane, chairman of the task force, the group that examines all aspects of the flight. According to the weather forecast, the chance of suitable weather conditions for the flight is 80%, says Kathy Winters, the shuttle's weather officer. "We're going to have great weather," she said.

Discovery, embarking on a 14-day mission, is carrying the largest cargo yet to the space station, which assembly will require three spacewalks. This is the second of three missions that will carry components to complete the Japanese space laboratory Kibo. The team will install Kibo's compressed module as well as the independent robotic arm of this lab. Discovery will also onboard a new crew member – Greg Chaimtoff, and bring back Garrett Reisman, who will be finishing a three-month stay on the space station.

Fix the services

Replacement parts designed to fix recurring problems in Russian-made toilets on the International Space Station arrived in the United States on Thursday and were loaded onto the space shuttle Discovery in a night operation at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew of Discovery and the occupants of the International Space Station will install the new parts, including a pump, during mission STS-124. The three Station staff members have been using replacements for the damaged toilet facility for some time.

Unpleasant, but the space station's toilet facility is capable of handling solid waste well, but as for liquid waste, it takes the astronauts ten minutes after they've flushed the water three times to manually turn on all the pumps. This is what Kirk Shearman, deputy director of the International Space Station program said on behalf of NASA. "It is very inconvenient due to the much manual involvement required," said Shearman.