Atlantis Astronauts Start Final Stages Of Station Rendezvous

Shuttle Atlantis just propelled itself into the final stages of a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station as six astronauts aimed to deliver a fourth Russian docking port to the outpost.

Trailing below and about 9.5 miles behind the station, the Atlantis astronauts fired a single maneuvering engine in a powerful 12-second burst, putting the shuttle on course for a docking at the station at 10:27 a.m.

First up, though, will be an eight-minute maneuver aimed at pointing the underside of the shuttle at the station so three crewmates on the outpost can document the condition of thermal heat-shield tiles that cover the belly of the ship. The nose-over-tail back flip will take place at 9:22 a.m. as the shuttle closes within about 600 feet of the station.

From windows perches inside the station, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will take high-resolution photos of the heat-shield tiles. Kotov will have a 400-millimeter digital camera and Noguchi and Creamer both will wield 800-millimeter cameras.

The job normally is done by two crewmembers. A third was added to obtain imagery of heat shield components that will skipped in a streamlined inspection Saturday. The work Saturday was not completed as a result of difficulties encountered with the shuttle's inspection boom.

The just-completed Terminal Initiation, or TI, burn raised the high and low points of the shuttle's orbit to 217 and 213 miles respectively. An engine firing about 90 minutes earlier boosted the shuttle into an orbit with an apogee of 214 miles and a perigee of 210 miles.

The station is cruising in a circular orbit 220 miles above the planet.