Shuttle crew bringing Japanese lab into space

The space shuttle Endeavour is closing in on a planned docking tonight with the International Space Station, which is about to become even more of a global scientific village with the delivery of the Japanese Kibo laboratory.

Kibo will join U.S., Russian and European labs that were installed on previous missions. The most recent was the European lab Columbus, installed during the Atlantis mission several weeks ago.

“With this flight I believe that we finally became a real partner … not just one of the members on the list,” said Keiji Tachikawa, head of the Japanese space agency JAXA.

The first stage of the Kibo lab will be affixed to the station during the 16-day mission, the longest ever.

The mission includes a challenging five spacewalks as well, which is again the most for a single shuttle mission.

Along with the initial stage of Kibo, Endeavour carries a Canadian-built robot named Dextre that will be used for routine maintenance on the outside of the station, reducing the need for astronauts to venture into space.

At the end of each arm is a “hand” consisting of retractable jaws that will be used to grip objects in space.

Among Endeavour’s seven-person crew is Japanese astronaut Takao Doi.

In the moments before Endeavour lifted off its central Florida launch pad early Tuesday, shuttle commander Dominic Gorie radioed the Japanese greeting “konichiwa” and the exclamation “banzai.”