Posted on 08/10/2007 12:54:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) - Space shuttle Endeavour linked up with the International Space Station on Friday, bringing the first teacher in space and a new truss segment to expand the orbiting laboratory.
Borrowing a navy tradition, a bell rang inside the ISS to welcome the shuttle after it docked with the outpost at 1802 GMT some 341 kilometers (212 miles) above the South Pacific, NASA television images showed.
The astronauts will enter the ISS after leak and pressure checks between the two spacecraft, NASA said.
Before docking, shuttle commander Scott Kelly made a tricky maneuver to make Endeavour perform a backflip that allowed the ISS crew to take pictures of its heat shield in order to check for any potential damage.
The astronauts will beam the images back to Earth to be analyzed by NASA engineers, who will check whether the shuttle was damaged by foam that hit Endeavour during Wednesday's liftoff after peeling off from its external fuel tank.
Nine pieces of insulation flaked off the fuel tank during the initial minutes of ascent, but only three may have struck the shuttle itself, Mission Management Team chairman John Shannon told reporters, adding he was "very confident" there was no serious damage.
NASA thoroughly checks the orbiter's protective thermal tiles on every mission since shuttle Columbia's heat shield was pierced by debris during liftoff in 2004, causing it to disintegrated during its re-entry into Earth and killing seven astronauts.
Endeavour is carrying a crew of seven astronauts, including 55-year-old Barbara Morgan, the first teacher in space 21 years after the Challenger explosion in 1986 killed fellow educator Christa McAuliffe and six astronauts.
During the mission, the astronauts will install a new truss segment on the ISS as NASA continues to expand the outpost, which it considers a key part of its space exploration mission.
Three space walks are scheduled for the work, which includes replacing a defective gyroscope on the ISS and installing an external stowage platform.
Morgan will operate robotic arms on the ISS and the shuttle to unload and install new equipment and supplies on the space station.
"When we first came to orbit it took a little getting used to," she said in a video transmission from Endeavour. "I felt like I was upside down the whole time."
She joked about the weightlessness that sees items casually drift out of sight after being put aside.
"We'll have to do a treasure hunt later."
The mission comes amid a spate of scandals that have plagued the National Aeronautics and Space Administration this year, from the arrest of an astronaut on charges of attempted kidnapping to reports of astronauts drinking on the job.
As Endeavour headed towards the orbiting laboratory hundreds of miles above the Earth, NASA chief Michael Griffin moved to tackle troubling reports of drunken astronauts that tainted the agency in the run-up to the mission.
Griffin told reporters he could find no evidence to support the allegations Aviation Week Space Technology journal made last month.
"Right now, we've gone back 10 years and we can't even find where it would be a possibility there was crew under the influence on either a Soyuz (Russian space craft) or a shuttle," he said.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour after completing the rendezvous pitch manoeuvre where astronauts aboard the International Space Station photographed the orbiter's thermal protection system prior to docking with the station in this view from NASA TV, August 10, 2007. (NASA TV/Reuters)
The Space Shuttle Endeavour after sucessful docking with the International Space Station with the earth in the background in this view from NASA TV August 10, 2007. REUTERS/NASA TV
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The Space Shuttle Endeavour rotates during the rendezvous pitch manuever so that astronauts aboard the International Space Station may photograph the orbiter's thermal protection system prior to docking with the station in this view from NASA TV August 10, 2007. REUTERS/NASA TV
It’s a combo of both the computer and the pilot,, they use small mini retro jet actions fired by the pilot and they do use the old eyeball too but there is always a bit of guidance checked and double checked as the process is completed.
The last thing ya want is a collision in space
as to could anyone do it with some training? probably, it’s like operating the big arm on the shuttle. if you can handle a joystick.. ;-)
It’s still amazing and I think we belong in space.....NASA is welcome to my tax dollars.
NASA is welcome to my tax dollars.
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Yup. I could think of worse things to spend it on, lots. ;)
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