14 DAY TRIAL // NASA officials say that the space shuttle Endeavour has finally docked to the International Space Station (ISS), following its May 16 launch. This is the last time the spacecraft is in Earth's orbit.
The docking maneuver concluded at 6:14 am EDT (1014 GMT), when the orbiter managed to affix itself to the space station, and the connection between the two spacecraft was sealed.
Shortly, the two, 6-astronaut crews on both the ISS and Endeavour will finally open the doors separating them, and be reunited in low-Earth orbit. The shuttle is manned by the STS-134 crew, while the station is being operated by members of Expedition 27.
The hatches separating the two are currently scheduled to open at around 8:36 am EDT (1236 GMT), if no leaks are detected in the seals closing off the connection. The shuttle will spend a total of 16 days in space, NASA mission controllers explain.
Endeavour is current scheduled to separate from the ISS on May 29, ahead of a June 1 return to Earth. After it lands at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, it will be retired from active duty.
But before that happens, the shuttle needs to deliver the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) particle detector to the outer hull of the orbital lab. Four spacewalks are programmed during the shuttle's visit, and their main goal is to make that a reality.
The orbiter's final crew is made up of Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Greg Johnson and NASA mission specialists Michael Fincke, Andrew Feustel andGreg Chamitoff. Italian asotrnaut Roberto Vittori, from the European Space Agency (ESA), completes the crew.
On the other hand, Expedition 27 members include ISS Commander Dmitri Kondratyev (RosCosmos) and flight engineers Alexander Samokutyaev, Andrey Borisenko (RosCosmos), Ron Garan, Catherine Coleman (NASA) and Paolo Nespoli (ESA).
Before the docking procedure, Endeavour carried out its usual roll maneuver, during which astronauts aboard the ISS snapped high-resolution photos of its underbelly. The images will be sent to Earth, alongside results form STS-134 crew's own investigations of the heat shield, Space reports.
These are safety measures designed to ensure that a disaster such as Columbia's 2003 disintegration never occur again. Endeavour's crew will carry out another inspection of the shield shortly after they depart the ISS.