Space Shuttle Docked And Loaded

Frank Morring, Jr./Johnson Space Center, Houston

The space shuttle Discovery has docked with the International Space Station, delivering power and life support hardware needed to support a full-size crew of six later this year.

Mission Commander Lee Archambault and pilot Tony Antonelli maneuvered the orbiter to a soft dock at the front of the station's Harmony node at 5:19 p.m. EDT.

Earlier, Archambault and Antonelli flew Discovery through the rendezvous pitch maneuver, a back flip designed to give the station crew a chance to photograph the orbiter's belly tiles at a distance of about 600 feet.The digital photos, taken with 400mm and an 800mm lenses, will be added to laser imagery and other data collected Monday with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) that experts here are poring over to see if there are any dangerous cracks in the delicate tiles and composite panels that will protect the orbiter from the heat of reentry. As Discovery approached the station, they hadn't found any, NASA said.

The STS-119/15A mission is critical to doubling in the size of the station crew, now set for May. Discovery's payload bay carries the S6 truss element, with the station's final 240-foot-long solar array wing folded into it. Packed in the orbiter's middeck is a replacement for the failed urine distiller on board the ISS. Both the 20 kw of usable power that the array wing will provide, and the potable water from the urine distiller will be needed to support the six-person crew and the microgravity science that they hope to conduct.

For more details on this stage of the mission, check this post at the On Space blog, which has multiple photos of today's action. And check the On Space blog for more updates as the mission continues.

Photo of ISS docking port: NASA TV