NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Image above: The STS-130 and Expedition 22 crew members greet each other just after hatch opening. Image credit: NASA TV

› Meet the STS-130 Crew

Endeavour Arrives at International Space Station
The astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour docked to the International Space Station at 12:06 a.m. EST Wednesday beginning eight days of docked operations.

Starting early Tuesday evening Commander George Zamka and Pilot Terry Virts fired shuttle jets to refine the orbiter’s approach to the station, with Mission Specialists Kay Hire, Steve Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Bob Behnken supporting them on the shuttle flight deck. At 11 p.m., after Endeavour arrived at a point 600 feet directly below the station, Zamka commanded the shuttle to slowly rotate so that its underside was facing the station. Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov photographed the shuttle’s heat shield tiles. That imagery will be sent to the ground for study by specialists looking for any damaged tiles.

After the rendezvous pitch maneuver Zamka moved his ship directly in front of the station and began slowly backing in for the docking. After leak checks were completed, the hatches between the vehicles opened at 2:16 a.m. to begin the joint operations.

Among the first items to be transferred to the station are the spacesuits that Behnken and Patrick will wear during their three spacewalks and hardware for the replacement and checkout of the new Distillation Assembly that Williams will install in the station’s Water Recovery System.

Additional Resources
› STS-130 Press Kit (8.7 Mb PDF)
› STS-130 Mission Summary (448 Kb PDF)
› Reusable Solid Rocket Motor and Solid Rocket Boosters
› Fact Sheet: Remaining Shuttle Missions (1.3 Mb PDF)

Orbiter Status
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