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The International Space Station's three residents are awaiting the entry of shuttle Discovery's seven astronauts into the outpost. The opening of hatches on an airlock separating the two vehicles is scheduled for 6:58 p.m., but the event appears to be running ahead of schedule. Editor's note: 6:58 p.m.: False alarm. The hatches are expected to open any minute.
You can watch the crews meet and a formal welcome ceremony that follows right here. Just click the image above to launch a NASA TV viewer.
Discovery docked with the station at 5:20 p.m., eight minutes behind schedule.
It began an eight-day stay at the space station for the shuttle.
Work will begin in earnest Wednesday, as crews use two robotic arms to move a 31,000-pound truss from the station's payload bay to the starboard end of the station's central truss.
The girder is scheduled to be installed Thursday during the first of three planned spacewalks.
When Discovery leaves, it will have one different crew member on board. Sandra Magnus will take over the spot that Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata occupied on the way up.
In the still picture above, that's Magnus at left, Mike Fincke at center and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov at right.
Fincke and Lonchakov are scheduled to depart the station April 7 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
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