The sounds of Australian musician Xavier Rudd's "Shelter" awakened Endeavour's seven astronauts during their first morning in orbit, about 15 hours after a moonlit launch from Kennedy Space Center on Friday. "It's always a great day to be in space," mission commander Chris Ferguson, a drummer in the all-astronaut band Max Q, told ground controllers in Houston. "I'd like thank my brother for that song."
Here's how it went:
"And all these birds sing to my rhythms
And these waves they comfort me
Do what you will while you're able
Find what it is that you seek
I'll fly, fly, fly above the ocean
I will fly so high above the sea."
After an eight-hour sleep period, the crew's main task today will be an inspection of the orbiter's wing panels, nose cap and heat-shielding tiles for any debris that could have struck it during launch.
They'll use Endeavour's robotic arm and a 50-foot boom equipped with laser sensors to capture images that will be beamed to the ground for analysis, hopefully showing that the spaceship is in good condition to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Nov. 29.
You can watch live coverage of the inspection here at the Flame Trench, starting at 2:15 p.m. Just click on the NASA TV image on the right side of the page to launch a viewer.
The boom is scheduled to be unberthed from the shuttle at 1 p.m.
Other activities include checkouts of spacesuits and some prepartions for docking with the International Space Station, scheduled for just after 5 p.m. Sunday.
Click here to see a complete schedule of mission events televised on NASA TV.
Endeavour is on a 15-day mission to outfit the station for six-person crews, and to repair a damaged joint that rotates the station's starboard solar wings.
You can read the STS-126 mission's press kit here.
In addition to Ferguson, the crew includes pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Steve Bowen, Shane Kimbrough, Sandra Magnus, Don Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.
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