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Space Shuttle Atlantis Docks with ISS

Posted on: Saturday, 9 February 2008, 15:10 CST

The shuttle Atlantis docked with the international space station today, delivering a $2.1 billion European science module and a new tenant.

The two spacecraft linked 220 miles over the South Pacific Ocean, southwest of Australia, just before 11 a.m. CST.

The linkup united 10 astronauts from the United States, Russia, Germany and France for the weeklong installation of the European Space Agency's Columbus research lab.

The work begins Sunday, as the astronauts hoist the school bus-sized lab from the shuttle's payload bay with the station's robot arm. Astronauts Rex Walheim, an American, and Hans Schlegel, of Germany, will embark on a six- to seven-hour spacewalk to equip the lab with a grapple fixture for the mechanical limb to latch onto for the transfer.

"We're looking forward to seeing you folks," space station Peggy Whitson radioed the approaching shuttle.

Today's linkup offered Mission Control another opportunity to assess the shuttle's heat shielding for damage from Thursday's launch.

As Atlantis moved within 600 feet of the station, shuttle commander Steve Frick maneuvered the ship through a slow backflip. The nine-minute flip allowed astronauts on the space station to take more than 300 images of the heat shielding on the shuttle's underside as well as what appears to be either a tear in or a slight pulling away of a protective thermal blanket wrapped across the right side of the tail section.

The photos were quickly transmitted to imagery experts in Mission Control. The tail section damage, whose dimensions were not yet known, were first spotted in photographs of the tail taken by the shuttle crew with less capable cameras, NASA spokeswoman Brandi Dean said.

The photo sessions became a part of every shuttle mission in the aftermath of the 2003 Columbia tragedy. Columbia's fatal breakup was traced to an undetected hole in the heat shielding.

Initial assessments from tracking camera views of the shuttle's launch indicated no significant damage, John Shannon, the NASA mission management team chairman, said Friday.

With today's docking, Atlantis became the first shuttle to park at the station's Harmony module. Fabricated in Italy, Harmony was delivered during an October shuttle mission. Harmony serves as the link between all of the station's labs and a permanent shuttle parking spot.

Today's docking coincided with Whitson's 48th birthday.

A bright multicolored "Happy Birthday" banner stretched across the inside of the space station on Saturday, and the shuttle crew offered Whitson the Columbus module as a gift.

"We are looking forward to helping you over the next couple of days unpacking and enjoying your birthday present," a European Space Agency official told Whitson from the agency's control center outside Munich, Germany, early today.

Whitson arrived at the station in October to oversee the addition of European and Japanese lab modules.

The larger Japanese lab awaits launching on a pair of shuttle flights scheduled for mid-March and late April.

Also today, French astronaut Leopold Eyharts began moving his belongings from Atlantis to the station. Eyharts will remain aboard the station through March to commission Columbus.

He replaces American Dan Tani. Tani, who arrived at the station on an October shuttle mission, will return to Earth aboard Atlantis later this month.

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On the Net:

www.nasa.gov

Source: Houston Chronicle

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