spacetoday.net: Shuttle docks with ISS

Posted: Wed, Mar 18, 2009, 7:20 AM ET (1120 GMT)
STS-119: shuttle docked to ISS (NASA)

The space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station Tuesday afternoon and started preparations for the installation of a new set of solar panels for the orbiting outpost. Discovery docked with the station's Harmony module at 5:20 pm EDT (2020 GMT) after an uneventful approach to the station, and hatches separating the two opened a little less than two hours later. Shortly thereafter ISS crew member Sandra Magnus and STS-119 astronaut Koichi Wakata switched places; Wakata will remain on the station after the shuttle departs, returning Magnus to Earth. The shuttle and station crews will start work Wednesday with the key goal of the shuttle mission, the installation of last solar panel truss segment to the station. That work will be completed on a spacewalk scheduled to begin Thursday.