Discovery to Dock with Station

(NASA) – Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station at 5:12 p.m. EDT.

About an hour before docking, STS-119 Commander Lee Archambault will guide the shuttle through a Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or backflip, giving the Expedition 18 crew the opportunity to take pictures of the orbiter’s protective heat-resistant tiles. These photos will be sent to engineers on Earth for analysis.

Image above: The International Space Station’s new S6 truss structure and solar arrays are highlighted in this computer-generated artist’s rendering. Credit NASA TV

The STS-119 and Expedition 18 crews are slated to conduct pressure and leak checks to prepare for the opening of the hatches between the two spacecraft. They will then greet each other to begin a week of joint operations.

STS-119 Mission Specialist Koichi Wakata is joining the Expedition 18 crew by trading places with Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus. The two crews aboard the orbiting complex also will begin transferring cargo between the shuttle and the station.

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