HOUSTON - The space shuttle Endeavour
successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) Friday, merging
two excited astronaut crews hundreds of miles above the South Pacific Ocean.
The
shuttle's STS-118 astronaut crew arrived at the orbital laboratory at 1:02 p.m.
EDT (1702 GMT), after the station's three-man Expedition 15 crew photographed
Endeavour's heat-resistant underbelly with digital cameras. Hatches opened
between the two spacecraft just after 4:04 p.m. EDT (2004 GMT).
"Welcome
aboard," said Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin as Endeavour's
crew hooked up to the space station.
The docking
marked the orbital arrival for teacher-astronaut
Barbara Morgan, who helped prime Endeavour's docking ring for connection
with the ISS. Morgan's flight comes 22 years after she was first selected as
NASA's backup Teacher in Space in 1985.
Commanded
by veteran shuttle flyer Scott Kelly, Endeavour's seven-astronaut crew is
hauling about 5,000 (2,267 kilograms) of fresh cargo to the ISS, as well as an
external spare parts platform and new addition to the space station's
starboard-side truss.
Step by
step
Endeavour's
Friday ISS arrival came after a two-day cruise that began with a Wednesday
launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Kelly took the
100-ton orbiter's helm, guiding it within nine miles (14 kilometers) of the
space station by firing a correctional burn of propellant.
"We're
waitin' for ya," ISS
crewmember Clay Anderson radioed to Kelly shortly after the
maneuver.
When
Endeavour arrived 625 feet (191 meters) below the orbital laboratory, Kelly
fired small thrusters on the spacecraft, rotating the shuttle in place to
expose its black underbelly to the ISS crew. Midway through the zero-gravity somersault, the
station's Expedition 15 astronauts snapped photographs of the shuttle's
heat-resistant tiles for relay down to Earth.
After the
orbital acrobatics, Kelly swung Endeavour up to the forward part of the space
station to dock in front of its U.S. Destiny laboratory.
Rushed
greetings
Not long
after the two astronaut crews meet, however, astronauts began preparing for at
least seven busy work days in space--but could tack on three days to the mission.
The
possible extension hinges on tonight's 5:51 p.m. EDT (2151 GMT) test of the Station-to-Shuttle
Power Transfer System (SSPTS). The new device is designed to allow
Endeavour to draw on the space station's solar power grid and conserve its fuel
cell resources. Mission managers here at Johnson Space Center (JSC) will decide
Sunday whether or not to extend the mission.
Despite the
potential for more time in space, however, shuttle astronauts Tracy Caldwell
and Rick Mastracchio
wasted no time preparing the station's new Starboard 5 (S5) spacer truss for
delivery. The two will hand off the 4,000-pound (1,814-kilogram) hunk of space
station, affectionately known as "Stubby," to the ISS' robotic arm
later today.
"The
S5 truss is just one of many things that need to be done," Morgan said in
a NASA interview. "We hit the ground, or we hit the space, running, and we
don't stop until we land."
Once the
truss is in position, STS-118 mission specialist Dave Williams and Mastracchio will be
primed for their
first spacewalk tomorrow. The busy rush of post-docking isn't a new
experience for some of the STS-118 astronauts.
Two members
of Endeavour's crew, Mastracchio
and pilot Charlie Hobaugh,
are making a return trip to the ISS. Hobaugh helped deliver the station's U.S. Quest airlock
during NASA's STS-104 mission in 2001, one year after Mastracchio and his STS-106 crewmates
primed the orbital laboratory for its first astronaut crew.
"When
I was onboard the space station it was only three modules last time. Nobody was
living there and it was nice and clean, so I expect it to be just as clean as
when I left it," Mastracchio
said jokingly in a preflight interview.
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