spacetoday.net: Endeavour docks with ISS

Posted: Fri, Aug 10, 2007, 8:08 PM ET (0008 GMT)
STS-118: shuttle docked at ISS (NASA)

The space shuttle Endeavour successfully docked with the International Space Station on Friday afternoon as officials on the ground studied new imagery which appeared to show minor damage to tiles on the orbiter's belly. Endeavour docked with the station's Destiny lab module at 2:02 pm EDT (1802 GMT) after a gradual approach that included a "somersault" maneuver to allow the station crew to photograph the underside of the orbiter. Preliminary analysis of those images revealed some minor damage to several tiles, although NASA officials said the damage did not appear to be as bad as on some previous missions that landed safely. The damage appears to have been caused when a small chunk of ice, rather than foam, hit the underside of the shuttle about a minute after launch. A more detailed assessment will be made on Sunday. The next major milestone of the STS-118 mission will be the installation of the S5 truss to the station and a spacewalk on Saturday.