Space Shuttle
Endeavour And International Space Station Crews Join Forces
(13 March 2008) The crews of space
shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station have completed their
first day as an orbital team, beginning 12 days of joint
operations.
About an hour before docking, which occurred at
11:49 p.m. EDT Wednesday, STS-123 Commander Dominic Gorie guided the shuttle
through a back-flip manoeuvre, giving the Expedition 16 crew the opportunity to
take pictures of the orbiter's protective heat-resistant tiles. These photos
were sent to engineers on Earth for analysis.
The STS-123 and Expedition
16 crews opened the hatches between Endeavour and the station at 1:36 a.m. The
crews then spent time preparing for the first of five scheduled STS-123
spacewalks, which Mission Specialist Rick Linnehan and Expedition 16 Flight
Engineer Garrett Reisman will begin at 9:23 p.m. Thursday.
Shortly after
Endeavour's arrival at the station, Reisman traded places with Flight Engineer
Léopold Eyharts, a European Space Agency astronaut, to join the
Expedition 16 crew. Eyharts will return to Earth aboard Endeavour.
In
addition, the STS-123 crew will install the Canadian-built Dextre - the final
element of the station's Mobile Servicing System - and the Japanese Logistics
Module - Pressurised Section, which is the first component of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory.
(source:
NASA)
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