JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, TX - Undeterred by a failed radar system aboard space shuttle Discovery, commander Alan Poindexter gingerly guided the spaceship through a flawless rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station today. Discovery docked with the station's Harmony module at 3:44 a.n. EDT as the two craft sailed 220 miles above the Caribbean Ocean.
STS-131 PHOTO GALLERIES VIDEO DISCOVERY DOCKS WITH ISS WATCH | DOWNLOAD EXTERNAL TANK HANDHELD VIDEO REPLAY WATCH | DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY THREE HIGHLIGHTS WATCH | DOWNLOAD DISCOVERY/ISS HATCH OPENING WATCH | DOWNLOAD ISS FLIGHT CONTROLLER INTERVIEW - CORBETT HOENNINGER WATCH | DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY THREE ISS FLIGHT DIRECTOR UPDATE WATCH | DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY THREE MISSION STATUS BRIEFING WATCH | DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY THREE POST-MMT BRIEFING WATCH | DOWNLOAD RENDEZVOUS PITCH MANEUVER WATCH | DOWNLOAD APOLLO 13 CREW VISITS MISSION CONTROL WATCH | DOWNLOAD DEBRIS SEEN SHEDDING FROM DISCOVERY TAIL WATCH | DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY TWO HIGHLIGHTS WATCH | DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY TWO MISSION STATUS BRIEFING WATCH | DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY TWO POST-MMT BRIEFING WATCH | DOWNLOAD ALL-ACCESS MEMBERS ONLY VIDEO NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 1 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 2 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 3 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 4 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 5 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 6 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 7 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 8 DOWNLOAD NASA TV DOCKING COVERAGE, 1.2 MBPS, PART 9 DOWNLOAD MPLM IS BERTHED ONTO HARMONY DOWNLOAD MPLM IS REMOVED FROM DISCOVERY DOWNLOAD OBSS HANDOFF RMS TO SSRMS DOWNLOAD FLIGHT DAY THREE POST-MMT BRIEFING DOWNLOAD "Houston and Station, capture confirmed!" reported shuttle pilot James Dutton as latches engaged to bring the shuttle and station together. "Discovery, arriving," radioed Expedition 23 flight engineer Soichi Noguchi as he rang the ship's bell in a traditional ceremony borrowed from the U.S. Navy to welcome arriving visitors. After about an hour of leak checks to ensure there was a tight seal between the two spacecraft, the hatches were opened at 5:11 a.m. EDT and the shuttle astronauts - Poindexter and Dutton along with mission specialists Clayton Anderson, Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy Metcalfe-Lindenburger, Richard Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki - floated through the station's doorway and greetings from the ISS crew. Expedition 23 is led by station commander Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and flight engineers Mikhail Kornienko, Alexander Skortsov, Soichi Noguchi, Timothy "T.J." Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Notably, the STS-131 mission marks a milestone for women in space. For the first time, there are four female astronauts in orbit simultaneously. The flight also features only the second female Japanese astronaut and the first time there are two Japanese astronauts in space at the same time. It is also the last time a Japanese citizen will fly on the space shuttle. The joint shuttle/station docked operations also mark the last time seven people will fly the shuttle and thirteen people will be aboard ISS at the same time. Later this year, the shuttle program is scheduled for termination as assembly of the massive space station is completed. As a sign of how little is left to complete the orbital outpost, the combined mass of the station and shuttle, at docking time, is over one million pounds - 1,043,000 pounds, specifically. Discovery's rendezvous was more challenging than normal due to the failed Ku-band antenna, which is also part of the rendezvous radar system. With the high-precision radar out of action, the crew had to rely on alternate tools such as handheld laser ranging devices and television cameras. However, the final rendezvous and docking appeared flawless. "The 'radar-failed' procedures went very well, the crew flew the rendezvous profile flawlessly and made it look easy," said ISS Flight Director Richard Jones. During the rendezvous, Poindexter flew the orbiter to a point 600-feet directly below the space station and performed the usual rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM), the backflip to expose the underside of the shuttle to the station so that crewmembers on ISS could take high-resolution digital photos of the delicate heat shield tiles for analysis on the ground. Using 400 and 800 millimeter lens cameras, Kotov and Creamer took 364 photographs of the heat shield during the 90 seconds the belly of the orbiter was facing the station. With the RPM complete, Poindexter flew Discovery to a spot 300 feet in front of the station's forward docking port PMA #2 on the Harmony module, and slowly guided the ship to a perfect docking. (The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)
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