Endeavour Docks with International Space Station

At 6:14 a.m. EDT, Commander Mark Kelly backed space shuttle Endeavour into pressurized mating adapter 2 on the International Space Station’s Harmony node. The two spacecraft were flying about 220 miles up above and east of Chile at the time they docked.

The shuttle and station crews will open hatches and hold the traditional welcome ceremony at about 8:36 a.m. Endeavour’s crew will be working with Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Russian Flight Engineers Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev, Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, and NASA's Cady Coleman and Ron Garan.

The first robotic activity will be about 45 minutes after hatches are open, when the spare parts carrier, Express Logistics Carrier 3, will be transferred from the shuttle's robotic arm to the station’s robotic arm then installed on the port side of the station's truss structure. Among items on it are a spare ammonia tank, a high-pressure oxygen tank, two S-band antennas and 10 circuit breakers.

Mission Specialists Mike Fincke and Drew Feustel will transfer the spacesuits and spacewalk equipment over to the station’s Quest airlock and begin setting up for the first spacewalk, scheduled for Friday.

Today’s Mission Status Briefing is set for 9 a.m. and will air live on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.