This story was updated at 1:38 p.m. EST.
The space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of six arrived at
the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday to drop off some massive spare
parts for the orbiting laboratory.
The two vehicles linked at 11:51 a.m. EST (1651 GMT) as the
two spacecraft flew 220 miles (354 km) above Earth. After sealing the link
between them, astronauts opened the hatches at 1:29 p.m. EST (1829 GMT).
"We're crashing the party," Atlantis commander
Charlie Hobaugh radioed to the waiting station crew when the shuttle was
about a mile away.
"We're looking forward to seeing you guys,"
station astronaut Jeff Williams replied.
Atlantis launched
Monday carrying more than 27,000 pounds (12,246 kg) of cargo for the space
station, including a pair of massive carrier platforms laden with large spare
parts for the orbiting laboratory. The spares, which include huge gyroscopes,
pumps and other gear, will be installed at the station during three spacewalks
planned for the 11-day space mission.
Belly Flop
About an hour before docking, Hobaugh flew Atlantis through
a back flip called the rendezvous pitch maneuver, which affords the station a
detailed view of the shuttle's underbelly.
Inside the ISS, NASA astronauts Williams and Nicole Stott
took several hundred photographs of the shuttle's heat shield to be beamed down
to Mission Control so engineers can analyze them for any signs of damage the
orbiter may have suffered during launch.
The move is standard practice after the space shuttle
Columbia was damaged in 2003, when foam fell from the shuttle's external tank
during launch and damaged the sensitive tiles on that orbiter's heat shield.
The damage led to the devastating loss of the shuttle Columbia in 2003 and its
seven-astronaut crew.
So far NASA has found no major cause for concern from first
readings of data taken during an
exhaustive scan of the shuttle's heat shield Tuesday using a sensor-tipped
pole. Engineers will continue to pore over that data and the new photos to be
sure the shuttle is safe to ride back through Earth's atmosphere to the ground.
"Preliminarily, we don't have any significant
issues," said LeRoy Cain, head of Atlantis' mission management team, late
Tuesday.
Returning crewmember
After Atlantis' docked time at the
station ends Stott will return back home with the STS-129 crew.
"I hear you have someone up there looking for a ride
home," Hobaugh said as Atlantis approached the station. Williams joked
that Stott hadn't yet decided whether to stay in space or return to Earth.
"Tell her we all bathed, we're okay," Hobaugh
said.
Stott has been living aboard the station since late August
as part of the outpost's six-person crew. She is currently the last astronaut
planned to be rotated on and off the station using a NASA shuttle before the
fleet is retired in the next year or so.
Stott and her crewmates have been tackling some glitches
with the station's systems.
A 150-pound (68-kg) device used to distill
astronaut urine into pure drinking water is broken and will have to be
returned to Earth on Atlantis. The station's water processing assembly is also
experiencing problems.
Neither glitch is expected to pose any concern to Atlantis'
week-long stay at the space station, Cain said.
After reaching the station, the shuttle astronauts will
begin preparing for their mission's first spacewalk, set to take place
Thursday. Veteran spacewalker Mike Foreman and first-time flyer Bobby Satcher
plan to install a spare antenna and complete other station maintenance tasks
during the planned 6 1/2-hour activity.
This evening the two astronauts will sleep in
the station's Quest airlock in a so-called "campout" to purge their
bodies of nitrogen to avoid developing the bends while working in their
spacesuits tomorrow.
SPACE.com is providing complete coverage of Atlantis'
STS-129 mission to the International Space Station with Staff Writer Clara
Moskowitz and Managing Editor Tariq Malik based in New York. Click here for shuttle mission
updates and a link to NASA TV.
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