Space shuttle Atlantis docked with the station at 11:51 a.m. EST.After a series of leak checks that should take about two hours, the hatches between the two vehicles will be opened and the two crews will start their joint operations.
Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to dock to the station at 11:53 a.m. EST and deliver two pallets carrying more than 20,000 pounds worth of spare equipment too large to be launched into space aboard any other vehicle.
The morning focused on preparations for the rendezvous and docking to the station. Commander Charles Hobaugh and Pilot Barry Wilmore performed a few final corrective jet firings to refine the orbiter’s path to the station and position the vehicle for its rendezvous pitch maneuver 600 feet beneath the station.
Hobaugh will fly Atlantis ahead of the space station and slowly back it in for the docking to the station’s Harmony node. After a series of leak checks that should take about two hours, the hatches between the two vehicles will be opened and the two crews will start their joint operations.
Hatch opening will mark the end of Flight Engineer Nicole Stott’s two-and-a-half-month stint with the space station’s crew.
Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to dock to the station at 11:53 a.m. EST and deliver two pallets carrying more than 20,000 pounds worth of spare equipment too large to be launched into space aboard any other vehicle.
The morning focused on preparations for the rendezvous and docking to the station. Commander Charles Hobaugh and Pilot Barry Wilmore performed a few final corrective jet firings to refine the orbiter’s path to the station and position the vehicle for its rendezvous pitch maneuver 600 feet beneath the station.
Hobaugh will fly Atlantis ahead of the space station and slowly back it in for the docking to the station’s Harmony node. After a series of leak checks that should take about two hours, the hatches between the two vehicles will be opened and the two crews will start their joint operations.
Hatch opening will mark the end of Flight Engineer Nicole Stott’s two-and-a-half-month stint with the space station’s crew.
