Live in Orbit: Endeavour docks with ISS

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After executing a backflip to photograph Endeavour's heat shields, Commander Mark Polansky has docked the shuttle with the International Space Station's Harmony module.

"Capture confirmed," said a voice from Mission Control at 1:47 p.m., nearly two days into the mission.

After seals are tested and the air pressure is equalized, the hatches between the two spacecraft will open at 3:43 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 taken during the flip maneuver to determine whether any of about a dozen pieces of foam that broke loose during launch has damaged the shuttle's heat shields.

Endeavour approaches the pressurized mating adapter on the space station.


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.