This story was updated at 5:30 p.m. ET.
HOUSTON —
Space shuttle Endeavour and its astronaut crew will finish an orbital pursuit
of the International Space Station (ISS) this evening, poising themselves to
deliver Japan's first orbital room and a giant two-armed robot.
The
seven-astronaut STS-123
shuttle crew led by commander Dominic Gorie are due to dock with the space
station around 11:25 p.m. EDT (0325 GMT March 13) this evening. Gorie, who is
making his fourth spaceflight, will maneuver the 100-ton orbiter into position
at the orbital outpost.
"That
is one of the most exciting parts of the mission for me," Gorie said in a
preflight NASA interview. "Knowing that there's this space station crew on
the other side waiting for our arrival ... makes it a really exciting time as
well."
The crew
awoke today to the battle scene song from the movie "Godzilla Vs. Space
Godzilla," followed by the Blue Oyster Cult's radio hit
"Godzilla."
"Good morning
Endeavour. Doi san, ohayo gozaimasu," said Alvin Drew, shuttle spacecraft
communicator, to Japanese astronaut Takao Doi from Mission Control here in Houston. "Take on today like a monster."
"We are very happy to
hear Godzilla," Doi responded. "We are ready to go and we'll have a
great time today docking with the space station."
Crew
swap
Once the
hatches separating the two crews are opened tonight, STS-123 mission specialist
Garrett Reisman will replace European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut
Leopold Eyharts, who has lived aboard the station since early February 2008
as part of its Expedition 16 crew.
Since
arriving, Eyharts has been busy configuring and conducting experiments inside
of the ESA's 11.4-ton Columbus
laboratory module.
Reisman is
slated to stay on orbit until the STS-124 mission crew takes him home in June.
"I've
had such a good time as part of this this crew," Reisman said of his
shuttle colleagues before launch. "I think when it's time to close the
hatches, I'm going to be looking around saying 'where are you guys going, why
are you leaving me here?'"
Orbital
acrobatics
Before
Endeavour makes the on-orbit crew swap, however, Gorie will pilot the shuttle
through a 360-degree backflip about 600 feet (183 meters) below the orbital
laboratory.
The rendezvous
pitch maneuver (RPM), as it is known, will expose the shuttle's heat-resistant
underbelly so that space station commander Peggy Whitson and her crewmates can
photograph it with high-powered digital cameras.
Gorie said
the enormous lenses used by the station crew are like those "you see out
at the end of the football field in the end-zone," and will show any
chinks or damage to the heat-resistant tiles covering the shuttle's underside.
"Those
cameras, they are able to detect whether there's any white tile showing on the
surface of the orbiter," Gorie said. "That would mean that the black
coating on the belly tiles has been damaged and then we can go out and inspect
further later on in the mission."
Debris
data
The images
will complement a
six-hour inspection of the shuttle's wing leading edges and nose cap that
Gorie, Reisman and Doi finished early Wednesday.
The crew
also has some time reserved for a focused inspection on Friday, if required,
and will perform a second survey to check for dings by orbital debris and
micrometeorites before undocking next week.
LeRoy Cain,
chair of NASA's mission management team, said Wednesday afternoon that launch photos show potential debris at 10 seconds and 83 seconds after the shuttle's liftoff. Although Cain thinks
the events probably didn't damage Endeavour's heat shield, he noted that
engineers will continue to pore over the inspection data and take advantage
this evening's RPM photos.
"We'll
let the process take its toll and let the experts analyze it," Cain said
of heat shield analysis procedures. "We'll react to ... data as we see
it."
On-orbit
delivery
Almost
immediately after latching onto the space station tonight, Endeavour astronauts
will grapple a Spacelab pallet containing the pieces of the 1.72-ton Dextre
robot, then secure it onto part of the station's backbone-like truss to
make room for the unberth and install of the Japanese Logistics Pressurized
module, or JLP.
The day
after docking, Reisman and fellow mission specialist Rick Linnehan will venture
outside of the space station to install it.
"It
will be a momentous moment for Japan," Doi said of his nation's first
orbital room.
NASA is broadcasting
Endeavour's STS-123 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's
shuttle mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
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