CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday following a two-day chase that began Monday with launch from the Kennedy Space Center.
Manually flying the 100-ton spaceplane on the final leg of the approach, Atlantis mission commander Jeff Ashby precisely aligned the shuttle and gently locked the spaceship in place at 11:17 a.m. EDT (1517 GMT), a few minutes earlier than planned and without incident.
Boarding the station about an hour later, the combined crews warmly greeted each other with hugs, big smiles, lots of laughing and a few surprises for the Expedition Five crew, who haven't had visitors since they arrived at the station in June.
Among the gifts ferried to the station by the shuttle crew: salsa to spice up the bland tasting food, fresh fruit, new DVD movies and even a pecan pie -- something the shuttle team has been conspiring for several weeks to sneak up to the station without science officer Peggy Whitson finding out.
With a 12-second burst of power from the shuttle's left-hand orbital maneuvering engine, the final phase of the rendezvous and docking procedure began at 9:04 a.m. EDT (1304 GMT). It wasn't long after that a direct ship-to-ship radio link was established and everyone greeted each other.
"We've got your salsa," Ashby radioed to Whitson."OK, we'll let you in then," she replied with a smile in her voice.
"Have a good rendezvous and docking," Expedition Five commander Valery Korzun told Ashby.
Arriving at a point 600 feet (152 meters) below the station, Ashby started his manual piloting duties with plenty of help from his crewmates, who were checking distances and closing rates using the shuttle's radar and other navigation aids, as well as snapping pictures of the ISS.
Finishing a quarter-lap fly around to the front of the station, Atlantis was backed in to connect its docking ring with the port on the forward end of the station's Destiny science module -- something NASA hasn't seen in four months thanks to a long summer hiatus in flights caused by technical problems with the shuttle fleet.
"It does feel good to be back in the saddle. The crews are happy to be flying again and certainly I know the station crew is happy to see their visitors show up at their door," said lead flight director Phil Engelauf. "The rendezvous went as planned and the crew did a great job of flying."
The next major event of this STS-112 mission is to complete the primary reason for the whole flight in the first place: the installation of the $390 million S-One (S1) truss -- a 45-foot (13.7-meter) structural girder jam packed with electronics, computers and the guts of a radiator system that eventually will help keep the entire laboratory cool.
The work is to begin early Thursday when Whitson and Atlantis mission specialist Sandy Magnus will operate the station's robot arm to pluck the S1 truss from Atlantis' cargo bay and move it up against the S-Zero (S0) truss that was attached to the top of the Destiny module earlier this year.
A powerful claw on the end of S0 will grab a bar on the S1 and tightly pull the two segments together. Automatic bolts then will be commanded to securely fasten the two segments together.
At that point the way will be clear for Atlantis spacewalkers Dave Wolf and Piers Sellers to depart the station's Quest airlock and begin the first of three 6.5-hour extravehicular activities planned for the next week to finish making the mechanical, electrical and fluid connections between the new truss and the rest of the station.
If the timeline stays on schedule Thursday, the truss is to be pulled from the cargo bay at 6:46 a.m. EDT (1046 GMT) and mated to the S0 truss at 9:06 a.m. EDT (1306 GMT). The spacewalk is to begin at 10:41 a.m. EDT (1441 GMT) and last until 5:11 a.m. EDT (2111 GMT).
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