LIVE IMAGES: Refresh this page for periodic updates and the latest still image from NASA TV.
Call it a cosmic "photo op."
With shuttle pilot Tony Antonelli at the controls, Discovery will back away from the International Space Station today and then take a victory lap around the outpost -- a flyaround that will yield the first amazing views of the station with its four glimmering gold American solar wings in place.
For the first time, the station will look like the artist concepts that we've been seeing for years. The flyaround documents the culmination of an eight-year effort to build the station's 335-foot central truss and finish its U.S. solar power system.
And you can watch it all live here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the NASA TV box at the righthand side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage of the shuttle's high-flying departure from the frontier outpost. Be sure to refresh this page, too, for periodic updates.
It all starts with an upcoming farewell ceremony and hatch closure between the shuttle and the station at 12:53 p.m. Watch it live.
A leak check between the joined shuttle-station complex will be performed at 1:38. to make sure seals between hatches are tight.
Antonelli will undock the shuttle at 3:53 p.m. and then pilot the shuttle to a point about 400 feet before he begins the flyaround of the station at 4:18 p.m. Antonelli will fly a lap and a quarter before executing a final separation burn at 5:37 p.m., departing the immediate vicinity of the station.
Check out the crew's timeline and mail from Mission Control in their Flight Day 11 Execute Package
You can also see the timing of remaining mission milestons in the latest revision -- REV O -- of the STS-119 NASA TV Schedule
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