spacetoday.net: Endeavour docks with ISS

Posted: Thu, Mar 13, 2008, 6:44 AM ET (1044 GMT)
STS-123: docking with ISS (NASA)

The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the ISS late Wednesday night after initial inspections of the orbiter's exterior turned up no evidence of any damage sustained during ascent. Endeavour docked with the Harmony node module of the ISS at 11:49 pm EDT Wednesday (0349 GMT Thursday), and hatches between the shuttle and station opened about 90 minutes later. Endeavour will remain docked to the station for nearly 12 days as the STS-123 and ISS crews work to install an element of the Japanese lab module Kibo and the Canadian robotic manipulator Dextre. Later overnight the shuttle and station crews moved a pallet containing Dextre parts out of the shuttle's cargo bay and moved it to a location on the stations's exterior. Prior to the docking shuttle managers said that initial inspections of the shuttle's exterior showed no evidence of any damage to the orbiter; images taken during Endeavour's launch Tuesday night appeared to show a piece of debris, perhaps from a bird strike, come near or hit the orbiter about ten seconds after liftoff.