Live in Orbit: Backflip beginning at 12:54 PM

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Endeavour is approaching to within 600 feet of the International Space Station, where a backflip maneuver to photogragh Endeavour's heat shields from the space station will be performed at 12:54 p.m. EDT. Docking follows at about 1:55 p.m. EDT.

Watch it on NASA TV by clicking on the screen to the right.

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

Endeavour is in its 23rd mission with the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section. The module will provide a type of "front porch" for exposed experiments in space, 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.

Endeavour is pictured approaching the ISS from below.




Mark L. Polansky commands Endeavour and will execute the backflip. 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.

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