KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - Space shuttle Endeavour completed its two-day race to catch up with the International Space Station this morning with a nearly textbook rendezvous culminating in a flawless docking at 12:06 a.m. EST Wednesday morning. Endeavour's docking begins 10 days of joint operations aboard the complex including the addition of a new pressurized module to the space station.
STS-130 MISSION ARCHIVE PAGE STS-130 PHOTO GALLERIES February 10, 2010 FREE VIDEOS: WATCH: IN-CABIN VIEW DURING LAUNCH WATCH: ENDEAVOUR DOCKS WITH ISS WATCH: FLIGHT DAY THREE HIGHLIGHTS WATCH: ENDEAVOUR / ISS HATCH OPENING AND WELCOME CEREMONY WATCH: ISS FLIGHT DIRECTOR UPDATE WATCH: MISSION STATUS BRIEFING WATCH: BACKFLIP RENDEZVOUS PITCH MANEUVER ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIBERS: DOWNLOAD VIDEO: IN-CABIN VIEW DURING LAUNCH DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR DOCKS WITH ISS DOWNLOAD VIDEO: DOCKING COVERAGE - 1.6 GIGABYTES DOWNLOAD VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY THREE HIGHLIGHTS DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR / ISS HATCH OPENING AND WELCOME CEREMONY DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ISS FLIGHT DIRECTOR UPDATE DOWNLOAD VIDEO: MISSION STATUS BRIEFING DOWNLOAD VIDEO: BACKFLIP RENDEZVOUS PITCH MANEUVER February 9, 2010 FREE VIDEOS: WATCH: POST-MMT BRIEFING ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIBERS: DOWNLOAD VIDEO: POST-MMT BRIEFING February 8, 2010 FREE VIDEOS: WATCH VIDEO: ASCENT FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM REPLAY WATCH VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS SUIT UP PRIOR TO GOING TO LAUNCH PAD WATCH VIDEO: CREW WALKOUT WATCH VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS WATCH VIDEO: HANDHELD CAMERA VIDEO OF ET AFTER SEPARATION WATCH VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR LAUNCHES ON STS-130 WATCH VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS WATCH VIDEO: OUR VIDEO OF THE LAUNCH WATCH VIDEO: POSTLAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE WATCH VIDEO: OUR VIDEO OF CREW WALKOUT ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIBERS: DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ASCENT FLIGHT CONTROL TEAM REPLAY DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS SUIT UP PRIOR TO GOING TO LAUNCH PAD DOWNLOAD VIDEO: CREW WALKOUT DOWNLOAD VIDEO: FINAL PRELAUNCH POLLING DOWNLOAD VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS DOWNLOAD VIDEO: HANDHELD CAMERA VIDEO OF ET AFTER SEPARATION DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR LAUNCHES ON STS-130 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 1 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 2 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 3 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 4 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 5 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 6 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 7 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 8 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 9 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 150 KBPS - PART 1 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 LAUNCH COVERAGE, 150 KBPS - PART 2 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS DOWNLOAD VIDEO: OUR VIDEO OF THE LAUNCH DOWNLOAD VIDEO: POSTLAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 TANKING COVERAGE, 150 KBPS DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 TANKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 1 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 TANKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 2 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 TANKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 3 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 TANKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 4 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 TANKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 5 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: STS-130 TANKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS - PART 6 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: OUR VIDEO OF CREW WALKOUT February 7, 2010 FREE VIDEOS: WATCH VIDEO: BAD WEATHER SCRUBS ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH ATTEMPT WATCH VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS SUITUP FOR LAUNCH WATCH VIDEO: OUR VIDEO OF CREW WALKOUT WATCH VIDEO: ASTRONAUT WALKOUT FROM O&C BUILDING WATCH VIDEO: TIMELAPSE VIDEO OF RSS ROLLBACK ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIBERS: DOWNLOAD VIDEO: BAD WEATHER SCRUBS ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH ATTEMPT DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS SUITUP FOR LAUNCH DOWNLOAD VIDEO: OUR VIDEO OF CREW WALKOUT DOWNLOAD VIDEO: ASTRONAUT WALKOUT FROM O&C BUILDING DOWNLOAD VIDEO: TIMELAPSE VIDEO OF RSS ROLLBACK DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 150 KBPS - PART 1 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 150 KBPS - PART 2 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 1 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 2 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 3 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 4 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 5 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 6 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 7 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 8 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 9 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 10 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 11 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: COMPLETE TV COVERAGE OF FIRST LAUNCH ATTEMPT, 1.2 MBPS - PART 12 DOWNLOAD VIDEO: RSS ROLLBACK HI-DEFINITION VIDEO FLIGHT DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH As the two spacecraft sailed 215 miles above the Earth over the northern Atlantic Ocean, shuttle commander George Zamka delicately guided Endeavour through a precise corridor lining up the orbiter's docking adapter with its counterpart on the end of the space station's Harmony connecting node. "Station and Houston, capture confirmed," Endeavour's pilot Terry Virts radioed to mission controllers in Houston and the Expedition 22 crew aboard ISS as the two vehicles made contact and latches engaged to join the spacecraft together. After an hour and a half of leak checks to ensure an airtight seal between the shuttle and station, the hatches were opened and the crew of ISS, Expedition 22 commander Jeff Williams and flight engineers Oleg Kotov, Max Suraev, T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi, welcomes the STS-130 astronauts on board ISS. "We just wanted to take a moment to welcome the crew of STS-130 aboard the ISS," Williams said. "We're happy to see our friends. Some of us are really happy because we haven't seen many people other than the crew for a long time, and happy that we're coming close to the completion of assembly of station with this mission. So really happy to have you guys on board." "Jeff, we are glad to be here," Zamka replied. "It was absolutely beautiful coming on up. We're ready to bring up Tranquility and cupola and work with you guys and bring it to life. This is a great day." With Endeavour station-keeping 600 feet below ISS before docking, Zamka commanded Endeavour to pitch over on its back to expose the sensitive heat shield tiles on its belly to the space station where Williams and Kotov used 400-millimeter and 800-millimeter digital cameras to take high-resolution photos of the thermal protection system. The photos will be used by a team of engineers in mission control who will look for signs of any damage that occurred during the shuttle's ride to orbit Monday morning. So far, however, nothing has been spotted on launch day photos or video that would indicate Endeavour suffered any potentially catastrophic damage that would require repairs before its scorching re-entry and return to Earth at the end of STS-130. The only hiccup in today's rendezvous was the failure of the laser-ranging trajectory control system. The system provides range (distance) and range-rate (closing rate) information to the shuttle crew as they move into final approach before docking. The automatic system started to provide erratic data as Endeavour flew within 200 feet of the station, forcing the crew to rely on a backup system consisting of a handheld laser range sensor. Mission control emphasized that use of the handheld system is perfectly acceptable and the docking operation was never threatened. "We just relied more heavily on the hand-held laser and disregarded some of the noisy data that was coming from the trajectory control system," said lead Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho Endeavour's docking sets the stage for the mission's first spacewalk Thursday when the new Tranquility module and cupola will be lifted out of the shuttle's payload bay and attached to the side of the Unity Node 1 module. (The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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