NASA: With Atlantis docked, work begins today

Shuttle astronauts using robotic arms to pull equipment carrier out of shuttle payload bay

By Sharon Gaudin

With the NASA space shuttle Atlantis successfully docked at the International Space Station this afternoon, hatches have been opened and work has begun 210 miles above the Earth.

The shuttle, which lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on Monday afternoon, arrived and docked at the space station at 11:51 a.m. EST this morning. Atlantis is carrying some 27,250 pounds of spare parts. The load is more than any other current space vehicle could handle.

The Atlantis crew is now ready to work with the robotic arms onboard both the shuttle and the station to begin unloading some of that gear, according to NASA.

The robotic arm on the shuttle will reach into its own payload bay and lift out one of the equipment carriers and hand it off to the robotic arm on the space station. The shuttle brought up two equipment-carrying platforms. Both will be attached on either side of the station's truss or backbone during the 11-day mission.

On Tuesday, the Atlantis crew spent about five hours using the shuttle's 50-foot-long robotic arm, along with its 50-foot-long orbiter boom sensor system, to take pictures of the shuttle craft's wings and nosecap, to inspect for damage that might have occurred during takeoff. The astronauts running the inspection used a suite of cameras and lasers designed to give them 3-D views of the shuttle's heat shield.

This morning, as the shuttle approached the space station, Atlantis Commander Charlie Hobaugh rotated the vehicle backwards so astronauts on the space station could take pictures of the shuttle heat shield with 800 millimeter and 400 millimeter lenses.

All of the images will be sent back to ground control, where engineers will inspect them for any problems with the shuttle's thermal protection system, which will be needed to protect the craft during the blazing temperatures it will encounter during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

The equipment being delivered during this mission is considered critical to the operation of the space station, according to NASA. At this point, there are only six flights left for the space shuttle fleet before it's scheduled to be retired. The equipment that needs to go up is being delivered in order of highest priority. Since this is the first mission to deliver what scientists hope will turn into a trove of spare parts, they're taking up the most important pieces.

The astronauts are expected to make three space walks to unload the parts from the shuttle and connect them to the sides of the station's truss.