Shuttle Atlantis Docks At The International Space Station

Shuttle Atlantis and its six astronauts just arrived at the International Space Station after a two-day trip from Kennedy Space Center.

With mission commander Ken Ham at the controls, the shuttle eased up to a docking port on the end of the U.S. Harmony module at 10:27 a.m., marking the end of a ground-up rendezvous that began with the shuttle's precisely timed launch at 2:20 p.m. Friday.

"Houston, station. Capture confirmed," the call came from the crew cabin of Atlantis.

"Welcome to station," said Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, a station flight engineer. "Space Shuttle Atlantis arriving."

The traditional ringing of a bell inside the station then could be heard over communications loops. The docking took aplace at 10:28 a.m. as the joined craft flew 220 miles above the South Pacific Ocean.

Atlantis and its crew are in the midst of the 34th station assembly mission to be carried out aboard shuttles since the first two building blocks were linked in low Earth orbit in 1998. The astronauts are delivering a fourth Russian docking port as well as a spare U.S. space-to-ground communications antenna, a European robot arm and an airlock for a Russian lab module to be launched in 2012.

Coming up at 12:30 p.m.: Hatch opening between the ships and a welcome ceremony inside the station.