The US shuttle Discovery delivered a large Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station on Monday that will give the Asian power a permanent outpost to carry out experiments in space.

Mission specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan will venture out of the ISS on Tuesday on the first of three planned spacewalks to unlock the lab from the shuttle's payload bay so it can be installed on the orbiting station.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will then operate the station's robotic arm to remove his country's lab from Discovery's cargo bay and attach it to the ISS.

Discovery linked up with the ISS on Monday about 338 kilometres above the South Pacific after a two-day trip around Earth.

Two hours after docking, Hoshide, Fossum, Garan and Discovery's four other astronauts floated into the ISS, where they exchanged hugs and handshakes with the outpost's three residents.

"You have a beautiful house," US robotics specialist Greg Chamitoff told ISS crew member Garrett Reisman before the hatches opened. Chamitoff is replacing Reisman, who will return to Earth aboard Discovery after a three-month mission.

About an hour before docking, Commander Mark Kelly steered Discovery into a rollercoaster-like manoeuvre, flipping the shuttle just 180 metres below the station to allow ISS astronauts to photograph its underside.

The images taken by the station crew members were downloaded to engineers on Earth who were inspecting them for signs of damage to the shuttle's thermal shield.

Lead shuttle flight director Matt Abbott said the mission had been "flawless" so far.

"It's one big happy spaceship now (with) the International Space Station and Discovery, and it's great to have the Kibo pressurised module part of the International Space Station. All we have to do now is install it," he said.

The Japanese Pressurised Module (JPM) is the central segment of three parts that will make up Japan's Kibo, or "hope," laboratory.

AFP