Atlantis Makes Last Shuttle Link-Up At Station

The orbiter Atlantis and four astronauts made a final high-flying shuttle arrival at the International Space Station today as both ships soared 242 miles above the Pacific Ocean east of Christchurch, New Zealand.

"Atlantis, which began the era of international cooperation in space with the first shuttle docking to the Mir space station, comes full circle," said NASA Flight Commentator Rob Navias. "The space shuttle has arrived at the International Space Station for the final time."

The two spacecraft locked in a metallic embrace one day, 23 hours and 38 minutes after Atlantis and its crew set sail from Kennedy Space Center on the nation's 135th and final shuttle flight.

It is the 33rd flight of Atlantis and the 37th shuttle docking at the International Space Station.

Counting nine link ups with Russia's space station Mir in the mid- to late-1990s, shuttles have made 46 dockings in orbit.

The final shuttle-station hook-up came about an hour after Atlantis mission commander Chris Ferguson guided the winged orbiter through a graceful, nose-over-tail backflip.

The nine-minute maneuver, which was carried out about 600 feet from the station, enabled two outpost flight engineers to photograph the fragile thermal tiles on the underside of the orbiter. U.S. astronaut Mike Fossum and Satoshi Furakawa of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency employ high-resolution cameras with 800 mm and 400 mm lenses, respectively.

Navias called it "poetry in motion." Ferguson flew a "textbook" maneuver, Navias added.

Fossum and Furakawa took hundreds of pictures in during an opportunity that lasted just 93 seconds. The photos are taken when the shuttle reaches a point when its belly is pointed straight at the station. The two photographers took the pictures from windows inside the Russian Zvezda -- or "Star" -- Service Module, a command-and-control post that also serves as a crew quarters.

Atlantis is moored at the forward end of the U.S. Harmony module, a docking port that also serves as a gateway to the Japanese Kibo -- or "Hope" Science Research Facility and the European Columbus laboratory.

The Kibo facility comprises the largest lab at the station, a cylindrical storage warehouse and a large external platform that exposes various science experiments to the vacuum environment in low Earth orbit. Three shuttle missions were required assemble the Japanese segment of the outpost.

A series of leak checks will be performed over the next couple of hours -- tests aimed at making certain there is an airtight seal between the joined shuttle and station.

Hatches between the spacecraft are scheduled to open about 1:19 p.m. A short welcome ceremony inside the Harmony module is slated at that time, and a safety briefing will follow to make certain the Atlantis astronauts know how and what to do in the event of an emergency.

The Atlantis astronauts aim to deliver a year's worth of food and supplies to the station. Nestled in the shuttle's expansive payload bay is the Raffaello logistics module, one of three built for NASA by the Italian Space Agency.

The 21-foot-long module, which is 15 feet wide, is named for Raffaello Sanzio. NASA says Sanzio was "an artist whose work stands alone for its visual achievement of human grandeur, both in clarity of form and ease of composition."

The docking increased the population on the station to 10.

The shuttle crew includes pilot Doug Hurley and two mission specialists: Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim.

The station crew includes Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko, the current outpost commander, Alexander Samokutyav and Sergei Volkov. Volkov is a second generation cosmonaut. His father, Alexander Volkov, spent more than a year in orbit aboard Russian space stations.

Fossum, Farakawa, and U.S. astronaut Ron Garan round out the crew.

The Atlantis astronauts are scheduled to depart the station on July 18, although the crew is trying to conserve enough electrical power to remain an extra day.

The shuttle's grand finale -- a gliding touch down at Kennedy Space Center, is scheduled at 7:02 a.m. July 20, the 42nd anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.