(11 Jun 2007)
++AUDIO AND VIDEO AS INCOMING++
1. International Space Station
2. View of the shuttle Atlantis
3. Various of Atlantis
4. Various of Atlantis turning around for inspection
5. Various close-ups of the shuttle
6. Approach to docking
7. Various wide shots of the shuttle approaching the space station
8. Various of final approach and latching
9. Shuttle and space station docked
STORYLINE:
Atlantis docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, as engineers continued to review photographs of a section of peeled-back thermal blanket on the space shuttle.
Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow eased the shuttle into the space station's docking port. Latches fastened the shuttle and orbiting space lab together at 3:36 p.m. EDT (19:36 GMT).
The shuttle's two-day chase of the space station ended about 210 miles (338 kilometres) above southeastern Australia.
It was the first visit this year by a shuttle to the space station. The shuttle was delivering the newest member of the space station's crew as well as a new segment to the orbiting outpost.
Prior to Atlantis' arrival, astronaut Danny Olivas took additional photographs from inside the shuttle of the area where the thermal blanket had peeled back. The images were sent to Mission Control for analysis.
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) engineers were focusing their attention on a gap about 4 inches (10 centimetres) by 6 inches (15 centimetres) that was discovered after Friday's launch from Kennedy Space Centre.
Engineers were not sure whether stitching on the blanket came loose or whether the blanket, covering a pod of engines near the shuttle's tail, was hit by debris during launch.
Astronauts inside the space station also took photographs of the shuttle's belly when Atlantis was 600 feet (183 metres) below the orbiting outpost.
The pictures were taken when Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow manoeuvred the shuttle into a 360-degree back-flip - part of an inspection technique. Engineers want to make sure there is no damage from launch like the kind that doomed Columbia in 2003.
Hatches connecting the shuttle and space station would not be opened for another one and a half hours until leak checks were done to ensure a tight seal between the two.
Soon after the hatches are opened, US space station resident Sunita Williams and shuttle astronaut Clayton Anderson will trade out seatliners on the Russian emergency vehicle attached to the station.
The seatliner exchange marks the official replacement of Williams by Anderson as a space station resident.
Williams will return to Earth aboard Atlantis after more than six months in space.
NASA engineers want to study more photos of the torn blanket, including images taken by cameras attached to the solid rocket boosters that separated from Atlantis after launch.
On Saturday, astronauts took photographs of the thermal blanket and heat shield using a camera attached to the end of a robotic arm and boom.
Engineers can build models from the images and perform tests to determine whether the peeled-back blanket would be problematic when Atlantis returns to Earth.
Thermal blankets came unstitched during flights of Discovery in 2005 and 2006 with no problems, and thermal tiles were lost in the same area where the blanket is on Atlantis on two of the earliest shuttle flights.
The area does not get hotter than 1-thousand degrees Fahrenheit (538 Celsius) during the shuttle's re-entry, compared with other vehicle parts, where temperatures can reach 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,593 Celsius).
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