spacetoday.net: Atlantis docks with space station

Posted: Sat, Jul 14, 2001, 9:38 AM ET (1338 GMT)
STS-104 patch

The space shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station Friday night as shuttle and station crews prepared to install an airlock to the orbiting facility. Atlantis docked with the station at 11:08 pm EDT Friday night (0308 GMT Saturday), about 15 minutes late as the shuttle approached the station slightly slower than planned. After docking the STS-104 and ISS crews completed a dress rehearsal of the spacewalk Saturday night when a new airlock module, named Quest, will be attached to the station's Unity module. That spacewalk, by astronauts Mike Gernhardt and James Reilly, is scheduled to begin at 10:10 pm EDT Saturday night (0210 GMT Sunday) and will last seven hours. Two more spacewalks by Gernhardt and Reilly are planned for later in the mission. Those spacewalks should not be affected by battery acid leaking from a spare spacewalk discovered by the Atlantis crew during the day Friday. The leak was described as minor and the spacesuits Gernhardt and Reilly will use show no evidence of similar leaks. Shuttle and station managers will decide later in the week whether to leave the suit on the station when the shuttle leaves next Friday as currently planned.