Space shuttle Discovery docked with the international
space station yesterday, delivering its newest inhabitant a German
astronaut who will return the orbiting complex's crew to three
people for the first time in three years.
The shuttle's jets cut off and space station latches
automatically hooked onto the shuttle as they traveled at 28,200
kilometers per hour, about 350 kilometers above the Earth.
Once the hatch was opened, European Space Agency astronaut
Thomas Reiter planned to move his seat liner to the Russian Soyuz
spacecraft attached to the space laboratory, marking his transfer
to the space station's crew.
An hour before the docking, Discovery commander Steve
Lindsey manually steered the shuttle's nose up and slowly flipped
the spacecraft over so the space station's crew could photograph
its belly for any signs of damage. It was only the second time a
space shuttle has performed the unusual maneuver before docking
with the station.
The space station's two residents, Russian cosmonaut Pavel
Vinogradov and Jeff Williams, an American, planned to transmit the
digital images back to Houston, where mission managers and
engineers would study them. An inspection on Wednesday by
Discovery's crew using cameras attached to a 15-meter boom
revealed no major damage from the launch.
"Great to see you out the window," Williams radioed to
Discovery after the shuttle fired maneuvering jets and made
its final approach to the space station several kilometers
away.
Lindsey responded: "Good to see you, Jeff. We're proceeding
along normally. You guys look great."
The pitch maneuver was performed for the first time during
Discovery's flight last year, the only other shuttle mission
since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Wednesday's inspection by the astronauts uncovered a thermal
tile filler poking about a half-inch out of the belly of
Discovery. Deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon said
better data should be available later Thursday but for now,
engineers do not believe the dangling fabric will pose a danger for
re-entry or require repairs. Last summer two similar strips had to
be removed in orbit.
Reiter, who has a son named Daniel, will spend six months living
on the space station.
The crew's size had been reduced to two in the years after the
Columbia accident when NASA's shuttle fleet was grounded;
Russian vehicles were not large enough to keep the space station
supplied for more than two people.
(China Daily July 7, 2006)
