CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The most cosmopolitan crew ever to fly in space banded together aboard the International Space Station Monday as shuttle Endeavour's astronauts joined the outpost's full-time tenants for some key construction and delivery work.
Wearing broad grins and toting cameras, the multinational shuttle crew -- which includes astronauts from the United States, Russia, Canada and Italy -- floated through a hatch that separates the linked craft about 5:30 a.m. EDT (09:30 GMT).
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Anxiously awaiting their arrival: Russian station commander Yuri Usachev and two American flight engineers, Jim Voss and Susan Helms, who happily greeted their first visitors since taking up residence on the complex in March.
"Welcome!" Usachev said as shuttle skipper Kent Rominger drifted into the station, followed by Canadian mission specialist Chris Hadfield and Italian crewmate Umberto Guidoni, the latter of whom became the first European Space Agency astronaut to board the orbiting outpost."Hey! How you doing? You guys are awesome," Rominger said. "We're all glad to be here."
American astronauts Scott Parazynski, Jeff Ashby and John Phillips then crossed the threshold with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
The combined crew includes representatives from nations that span four continents back on planet Earth.
Gathering in the station's U.S. Destiny science lab, the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts shook hands, hugged and snapped pictures of each other before Usachev led a quick safety briefing aboard the outpost.
The joined crews then set out on the prime job for the day: Anchoring the station's new Canadian construction crane to a specially designed fixture on the outside of the expansive Destiny lab.
Considered the heart of Canada's $900 million station contribution, the 57.7-foot (17.5-meter) robot arm was folded up and firmly latched to a shuttle cargo bay carrier pallet for Endeavour's two-day trip to the outpost.
The carrier pallet was mounted to a cradle outside the Destiny lab early Sunday. Hadfield and Parazynski then unfurled the arm during a seven-hour, 10-minute spacewalk that same day.
Working within Destiny, Voss, Helms and Hadfield set out to "walk" the arm off its carrier pallet. The plan is to anchor it on a Power and Data Grapple Fixture that will become the arm's initial base on the station.
Equipped with snare-like "hands" on either extremity, the robot arm then will be able to move end-over-end to various station work sites, crawling to places the shuttle's fixed robot arm cannot reach.
Also on tap Monday: The temporary mounting of an Italian moving van to a port on the station's American Unity module, which serves as a pressurized passageway to all parts of the outpost.
Dubbed Raffaello after 16th-century artist Raphael, the cargo carrier is filled with several tons of supplies and equipment for Usachev, Helms and Voss, who are in the midst of a four-month tour of duty aboard the complex.
All the gear and goods are scheduled to be unloaded over the course of the next several days before the so-called Multipurpose Logistics Module is stowed back in Endeavour's cargo bay for a return trip to Earth.
Endeavour's astronauts are scheduled to depart the station Saturday. The shuttle and its seven-member crew are due back at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 10 a.m. EDT (14:00 GMT) April 30.
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