Live in Orbit: After backflip, docking under way

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Commander Mark Polansky executed a backflip of Endeavour some 600 feet from the International Space Station. Polansky is now moving the shuttle to a point 400 feet in front of the station, from which he will move the shuttle toward the docking node on the Harmony module.

During the maneuver, the station crew photographed Endeavour's heat shields using telephoto lenses. Docking follows at about 1:55 p.m. EDT.

When the ISS and shuttle crews meet, it will mark the first time 13 astronauts are together in space.

NASA will analyze the photographs to determine whether any of about a dozen pieces of foam that broke loose during launch has damaged the shuttle's heat shields.

This is the view of the shuttle from the station halfway through the rendezvous pitch maneuver.



Mark L. Polansky commands Endeavour. Douglas G. Hurley serves as pilot. Mission specialists are Christopher J. Cassidy, Thomas H. Marshburn, David A. Wolf and Julie Payette, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut.

The mission will deliver Timothy L. Kopra to the station as a flight engineer and science officer and return Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata to Earth. Hurley, Cassidy, Marshburn and Kopra will be making their first trips to space.

Endeavour sets sail on its 23rd mission with the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section. The facility will provide a type of "front porch" for experiments in the exposed environment, and a robotic arm that will be attached to the Kibo Pressurized Module and used to position experiments outside the station. The mission will include five spacewalks.

STS-127 is the 29th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.